Ice
by Destiny Kitty
Summary: After running away from the Abbey, Kai needs to start a new life in a new country. Luckily Help finds him, in the form of two people who also need a hand. Complete!
1. small and fading, hiding alone

Possibly OOC. But he is just a young kid, he has the right to moments of weakness.

Inspired by the Goo Goo Dolls "Acoustic #3" which I must have listened to at least thirty times while writing this, and which I highly recommend. As for the story, in my understanding when Kai showed up in the US on that boat he didn't remember his past. I'll work from that. I'm on a Beyblade Christmas kick at the moment…

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………small and fading, hiding here alone……………………………

The young boy gazed out the window dimly, not really seeing anything that passed beyond the grimy glass barrier that divided him from the world. A nearby street lamp lent a small amount of illumination to the street outside, the only light he could see other than the glow of a few windows. One just across the way looked particularly inviting. Shadows of people moved in front it every now and again, shadows of two adults and several children of different ages.

There was no light within the abandoned building giving him a bit of protection from the bitterly cold night. No light, no warmth, no company, no cheer. Nothing to indicate, as did the home across the street, that it was Christmas Eve.

Kai rubbed his nose with one wrist, shivering at the chill settling into his body, eyelids heavy. He hadn't slept in a while, since there was a good chance that if he did he would not wake up the next day. Heat in this part of the city was as scarce as safety when one was alone and unprotected. And he lacked all three: company, protection, and warmth.

Maybe there was no point in continuing, he thought apathetically. Maybe he should just surrender to the gentle press of exhaustion and let go of his spirit. At least it would be a painless way to die, asleep and unaware when it was happening.

He shifted his weight slightly, and slipped a hand into a hidden pocket as something hard dug into his skin through the fabric of his clothes, wet with melted snow. Fingers closed around a small, round disk, and he pulled it out to watch the blue metal flash in the dim light.

He sniffed as his nose threatened to start running again and clutched the beyblade tighter. This was his only companion; the only thing he could remember from before he got off that boat was how to use it. Whatever had happened, this was his only tie to the rest of the world, as a lone, lost child in a strange place where no one looked at him twice or cared whether he lived or died. He shied away from people anyway, not sure how to respond to the few who took notice of him. They spoke a strange, fast language which he was not used to, though he could understand their words. He must have been taught the language back during the time he didn't remember. Even without that understanding he could tell that he was not wanted.

Both hands closed over Dranzer as his shivers intensified. The muscle spasms were becoming so violent that it was hard to sit straight, so he curled on his side on the floor to minimize the amount of his body open to the air. The floor was hard, covered in some sort of plastic that looked a little like stone but was not quite as cold. His eyes fell closed weakly.

_It wouldn't matter… it would be ok… sleep would be such a comfort. Yes, just go to sleep. Forget the fear and the cold, the hunger and the loneliness. Forget the world. After all, it has already forgotten you._

A slight burning sensation grew in his eyes as his brows drew together. _No, I am not worthless. I don't want to die. _There must be some reason he was here, and to find out why he had to live. Kai didn't even notice a few tears begin to make slow lines down his pale, smudged cheeks as he struggled to rise.

It was no use; he was too weak. His body had given up whether his mind wanted to or not. A sob wracked through his throat as he tried again to push himself off the floor and failed.

He collapsed flat to the floor, the hand still holding Dranzer now cushioning his cheek from the hard surface as he cried raggedly. But the tears only lasted a few moments before his utterly exhausted body gave out completely. Even his shivers slowed, his breathing became shallow, and he lost all consciousness of the cold night around him.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...

--ransom note (hehe)-- If you want to see this story continue, leave me a note. Otherwise little Kai will be left to freeze to death. I hear people only survive extreme exposure to cold for a few minutes.

Ok, I'm being evil. Pirate! (Everybody stay calm, we're taking over the ship!! POTC anyone?) Yes, possibly being alone in my freezing cold, dead quiet dorm room all day has addled my brain. So shoot me. But please review so I know there is some interest in me continuing. Thank you!!


	2. the world in your way

Can anyone tell me why I haven't gotten any email alerts from this site in a month? I'm confused, and who knows how many updates I've missed.

Thank you Tevera Raincoat, Keight Ylonen, Amongst-Azarath, Tuli-Susi and twin1 for your reviews! You're wonderful :D I decided five is a good number, plus I feel bad leaving poor Kai hanging on the brink of freezing to death.

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………the world in your way……………………………

The night was quiet; snow beginning to fall from the clouds above dampened out the usual noise of the city. A car turned onto the street. A stray cat, trying to avoid get wet, ran inside an abandoned building whose front door had been left ajar.

Inside that hushed building, its only human occupant lay deathly still on the cold linoleum floor. Finally sound asleep, the boy's body was growing cold. In the hand caught under his cheek, his pulse was weakening against the hard metal disk clutched in his palm. Dranzer was growing concerned.

_-- sleeping? no, fading away … why? we are not meant to die here … now … --_

The cat, nosing about the silent rooms just inside the door, caught a scent more substantial than rats and bugs, and followed it up the stairs. She sniffed toward another door.

Just as she rounded the corner and poked her nose between the door and frame, a bright blaze erupted under the windows. The room was suddenly radiantly illuminated as red flames engulfed the small body curled up on the floor.

The frightened cat did not see the boy under the windows. She did not stay to notice how a fierce heat had centered around Kai's slowly freezing body. She only knew the shock of unexpected light and that was enough to make her turn tail, dashing back down the stairs and out gap of the front door. She scampered across the road, in front of one of those fast noisemakers which to her luck was not moving, past a rider of the noisemaker and into the shadows of an alley across the street.

The young woman who had just gotten out of the car and thanked the driver, a friend of hers, saw the terrified cat scurry by and glanced across the street to see what had scared it. She noticed light in the building directly in front of her. It looked like a fire.

Divya frowned, wrinkling her dark forehead as she wondered who would have set a fire in the old abandoned building. Probably it was just some stupid kids fooling around. But if they caught the structure on fire it could spread to her apartment building before the fire department got there.

Huffing in annoyance, she turned back to the driver. "Hey, Jace, would you help me with something?"

"Sure, what?"

She pointed toward the lighted second-story window. "I want to make sure that is not a fire. Come with me?"

Jace looked from the red-lit window to his friend and back. "What about my car?"

"Just park, this won't take two minutes. It'll be fine."

"Fine, then," he grumbled good-naturedly. "Give me a sec."

Divya stood back as he maneuvered his car into a space alone the side of the road and turned off the engine, motioning her toward him as he climbed out of the vehicle. They crossed the street and Jace pushed the front door open cautiously.

"You got a flashlight or anything?" he asked as he peered into the dark interior. Divya handed him her keys, which had a small blue pointer light, and he shone the light into the entryway. Satisfied that no one was directly inside and there was no noise, he entered the building with Divya following.

She headed straight for the stairs, but he hissed at her, "Wait! Are those safe?"

She turned her head to answer, still climbing. "Yeah. I've been in here before, though not in a while. I wonder how long the front door's been unlocked. Bring up the light."

Jace hurried up behind her, glancing around apprehensively as his friend walked matter-of-factly toward the door of a front room which was standing open just a bit. There was indeed a red light showing through the gap.

Divya glanced back at him with her finger pressed to her lips, signaling silence, and they both stood still to catch any possible noise emanating from the room. There was none.

She edged closed, but Jace whispered, "Is this a good idea?"

"No," she answered flatly. "Come on."

Dranzer sensed heat outside the door, larger than his partner and much larger than the being who had been there moments ago. He withdrew cautiously from around Kai's body but stayed ready to spring up and burn the newcomers if they made any move to harm the boy. Kai's shivers returned to full force as cold air washed back over him.

Divya settled a hand on the door and pushed slightly. It was heaver than she had expected and opened slowly, but without a squeak. Holding her breath as it swung inward, she glanced into the room.

And was confused. Where seconds before there must have been a good deal of … something … to make all that light, now there was only a faint glow in the corner under the windows. Perhaps then it had been some sort of firework that had burned itself out.

"There's nothing there," she said to Jace as he walked around her and also looked into the room. She turned away, wondering where the person or people who had set the light had gone. "Come on, let's go," she sighed as her friend walked into the empty room.

"I want to see what it was," his hushed voice answered.

Scoffing, she retorted, "Wasn't it you who said this was a bad –"

"There's someone in here," he interrupted. "It's a kid."

"Careful," she said warningly, "you don't know what kids are capable of around here." But she glanced back into the room to see him outlined against the windows slightly illuminated from outside. He was kneeling and the bit of red light still shone near the floor, hidden under something. "Let's get out of here. This place is creepy and it's cold."

Jace ran his hand gently over the child's shoulder and down his arm. The fabric was damp and not very thick, and he could feel the boy shivering. "Yeah, and this kid's going to freeze out here."

"Come on, it's just another run-away."

"Divya," Jace said coldly. "He needs help."

She realized too late that she had offended him and rolled her eyes but said ruefully, "Alright, bring him up to my place."

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

I apologize for being evil last chapter. But I do need encouragement because I don't have a definite plan for the story so I might not make it to an ending. I really don't know how far I'll go with this story, so it all depends on you ::wink:: I welcome ideas too. Thank you!


	3. you don’t know life

Thank you twin1 for reviewing! Yup, the peoples found Kai. So what happens next?

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………you don't know life……………………………

Jace lifted the boy he and Divya had found from the dusty linoleum floor, folding skinny arms over thin chest and supporting him carefully. He glanced around to see if there was anything on the floor that the boy might value before retreating from the room.

Kai's hand closed a little tighter around the metal disk still cradled in his palm, unnoticed by the man now following his friend out of the abandoned building.

Dranzer, still alert, had listened to the moods behind the voices of these two and decided it was alright to trust them with Kai. The best thing for his partner would be the company of others of his kind who could help him recover his strength. The blade spirit had seldom felt the boy so weak before, and it worried him. There was vitality in this new body. Perhaps he could use some to make his partner well again.

Jace shrugged his shoulders at the chilly wind blowing light snow through the air, and laughed as Divya swore at a car that sped down the street as she looked to cross.

"I'd think you were used to the city by now," he called to her, but received no answer beyond a dark scowl. Deciding not to press the issue, as he was already putting upon her to take in the boy, he followed her across the street without any more jibes. As she unlocked the door and ushered him inside, he glanced over the small body curled in his arms. It was a shame that the child was alone. Jace would have brought him home himself but he was supposed to be meeting up with his girlfriend and her parents tonight. He was already going to be late but he had to make sure his little charity case was taken care of before leaving him in Divya's hands. Goodness knew she wasn't the maternal type. The thought of his serious friend with children of her own brought a grin to his face, which of course Divya noticed.

"What are you grinning at? This had better not be about the mess because honestly I couldn't care –"

Jace, used to her apartment which always needed tidying up, reassured, "Divya, relax, will you? I really don't care and I'm sure he's not going to complain about the state of your floors. And it's much cleaner than the place across the street."

"Oh, thanks, really," she said spitefully.

He ignored her tone, also well accustomed to her bad moods, and crossed to the couch in the middle of her den. Gently he settled the boy on the brown stripped fabric.

"Ugh, that dirty little thing on my couch?" Divya whined.

"Child, Divya. Have any clean clothes I could borrow?"

"Yeah, I'm sure my whole wardrobe would fit on him."

"If you don't want dirt and snow on your couch, find something."

Moodily, but unable to think of any alternative, she crossed into her bedroom. Jace glanced up at her retreating back and began slowly removing the boy's layers of wet clothes. Under a wool jacket was a button-down that probably looked quite nice when clean. He opened up the shirt to check for injuries. The boy's skin was very pale from the cold; a few bruises added color here and there but nothing major. His fingers were stiff, but not yet frostbitten. Jace rubbed the boy's hands between his own to warm them up a bit, then pulled off the child's boots to do the same to his toes. Overall, for what Jace could tell, he seemed to have survived the exposure very well.

Divya announced her returned presence by dropping a set of clothes on his head. Ignoring the intentional provocation he gathered a zip-up sweatshirt and black drawstring pants off the floor, saying calmly, "Warm water and a washcloth, please."

"Auugh," she answered, but walked away toward the kitchen to find a bowl for the water. Jace stripped his charge of wet shirt, pants and socks, slipping him into Divya's old clothes.

"If you don't mind," Divya said peevishly as she walked toward him with a tupperware bowl and a washcloth, "I have a rather neglected violin that I would like to put away."

Jace nodded, accepting the things he ahd asked for from her, and spent the next few minutes rinsing dirt and grime off the boy's face, neck, arms, hands. He pointedly ignored the bumps and thuds following Divya as she paced through the apartment, though he took amused notice of a number of things being put away besides her precious instrument.

Glancing at his watch, Jace decided that there was not much more he could do, for the moment anyway. He slid a pillow under the boy's head and unfolded a bright, thick blanket over him. Satisfied, he called to Divya as she walked by the door of the den holding several mismatched sandals that couldn't have been worn in months, "Do you have any soup you could heat up?"

"For goodness sake!" she almost yelled, dropping the shoes with a thump. "The kid is unconscious! He was probably left there by someone! Who knows how long he was out there or if he'll even wake up?"

"He's not really in that bad shape, considering. He didn't even have frostbite. Probably he's just lost and alone with no one to turn to for help. Have a heart, will you?"

Divya glared daggers at him but didn't say anything more. Jace stood and walked around the couch to stand in front of her. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he said softly, "Just find something he can eat, please?"

Her gaze moved from the pathetic child currently inhabiting her couch under her big puffy blanket to Jace. His green eyes gazed steadily into hers.

"Fine," she gulped, looking away.

"Thank you. Look, I've got to run, I promised Shelby's mother I would be at the restaurant half an hour ago. Tomorrow I'm having Christmas at my brother's house with my parents and him and his wife and kids, so I won't be able to come back at least until the afternoon."

"So I get stuck babysitting? Way to ruin my day."

"Your day of moping around until the bars open?"

"Shut up!"

She folded her arms and stood stiffly as he hugged her, refusing to return the affectionate gesture. As he let go to throw on his jacket she unlocked the door. He cheerfully said goodbye as he walked out the door she was holding open for him. "I'll see you tomorrow! Merry Christmas!"

Divya waved at him half-heartedly, watching him bound down the stairs.

_I can't believe I let him stick me with one of his charity cases._ Grumpily she turned back into her apartment, locking the door securely behind her. _Not that they will matter if that kid is an accomplice to someone who wants to get in here. That would be just my luck._

_Maybe he'll stay knocked out until Jace comes back._

But as she walked within view of the den again, it was to be met by a pair of staring crimson eyes.

_Oh great._

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Hehe, Divya is now being based on my sister. She's not really mean, just loud and moody. And easily offended and hates being told what to do, but I guess that's more like me. Divya's cranky and Kai is sullen. How will they react to each other?

Divya is of legal age to drink (she's 25!) Yeah, she's got it bad for Jace. Will they get together? Who knows, for now…

This is about as far as I've thought into the story. The beginning of the next scene is planned a little but I don't know where it will go. But I didn't know that Divya would ask Jace to join her until she did, or even that he would be part of the story. We'll see what happens. Please review : D

"Strangely enough, it all turns out well. How? I don't know; it's a mystery." (Henslowe, Shakespeare in Love)


	4. when strangers meet

Thank you Amongst-Azarath, Tuti-Susi, of or on, kris the ninja pirate, Killani and Keight Ylonen for your reviews!

To clarify a few things: this is happening well before the first season, when Kai is about 11 and just left the Abbey, before he becomes a world famous blader. I don't know much about his early story so I'm making it up. The story is set in New York City, and will be a short encounter (of course three chapters has covered perhaps only a couple of hours). That's the current plan.

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………when strangers meet……………………………

Divya stared at the boy, and he stared back. _What should I do?_ she thought. She didn't want to get any closer until he made the first move.

Looking carefully at the boy for the first time, she realized how small and frail he really did appear. His eyes, though trained on her, were only half-open and bleary. He sat unsteadily, supporting himself with one hand on the back of the couch. After staring at her for a few seconds, his gaze darted around the room searchingly. His pale face became even paler.

That was odd. Unless he was as frightened… wary… of her as she was of him, she realized. _At least I didn't just wake up in a stranger's house_.

She took a step forward and the boy dropped the hand on the back of the couch, looking around again before blurting out something fast and incomprehensible.

"Um," she cleared her throat, "sorry, what?"

Even more desperately he spoke again, repeating some of the sounds he had used before and adding others. But still she could not understand what he was trying to say. _He doesn't speak English!_ she realized, surprised. _No wonder he's doing so badly; he can't even communicate. _

She put a hand to her forehead, trying to think of what to do. Calling Jace was her first thought, but what could he do? He was no expert in languages, and would be just as confused as she was. Then she remembered her promise to feed the boy if he woke up. Maybe that would keep him from attacking her or something.

Feeling foolish, she mimed putting something in her mouth and rubbed her stomach, then pointed to him. He looked at her warily but was spared the need to answer as his stomach growled audibly. That finally brought a slight smile to her lips.

"Hungry?" she asked, hopeful he would at least know this simple word.

He dropped his gaze but nodded, saying something that slightly resembled the word 'please'.

_Perhaps this will not be so bad after all_.

Kai watched the young woman walk away, then returned to gazing blankly around him. He couldn't think straight, that must be the problem, because he could not figure out where he was. What he could see consisted of a small room with two windows on one wall and bright tapestries on two other walls, with a wide doorway across from the windows that apparently led to more rooms. A chair sat in the corner next to a low shelf crammed with books, and a rather large plant inhabited the other corner. Everything seemed to be covered in bright colors, mostly reds and yellows but also purples, blues, and other vibrant shades. All the visual noise was making his head hurt and he put both hands over his face in hopes his headache would go away so he could figure out what to do.

"Are you ok?" a voice broke into his thoughts.

Hearing concern, he shook his head. That made him dizzy, so he grabbed hold of the couch back again to steady himself and opened his eyes. The woman was standing just on the other side of the couch, holding a plate out to him. Knowing he was meant to accept it, he did, moving slowly to avoid dropping the food. He remembered to thank her before beginning to eat.

Divya walked around the couch slowly, setting a glass of juice down next to him on a tiny coffee table. She frowned in slight confusion at the small blue disk sitting there, but ignored it and went to sit in the chair by the window to watch her uninvited houseguest. After several big bites he glanced up at her again. Seeming to take her lack of motion for a good sign, he picked up the glass and returned to eagerly filling his stomach.

She considered him silently. Other than those oddly colored eyes he seemed a relatively normal kid, though she did not have much experience with anyone of his age. How old could he be? Ten or twelve at most was her guess.

Yawns had begun to interrupt the boy's steady intake of food, but he kept at it valiantly until his head was seriously drooping. Divya jumped up and caught his plate before it could slip onto the floor, setting it next to the now half-empty glass of juice. She helped the barely-conscious boy lay back down and pulled the covers up over him, tucking the edges in. _It **was** kind of nice_, she decided, _like having a pet. Or a doll. _

_Oh, for heavens sake listen to yourself! He's a street kid! Who knows what kinds of damage he could cause!_

But there was another part of her that admitted, as she watched the boy snuggle sleepily under her blanket, that this really wasn't so bad.

_I'd better watch out or I'll go soft._

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

A lot of the people I work with in the summers are from Eastern Europe, Russia, Siberia, Turkey, etc. But I didn't really learn anything from them, stupid me. I wanted to put in what Kai was actually saying but I can't find a translator that uses the English alphabet rather than the Russian one –sigh– I thought about using Polish instead since one of my best friends is fluent and could help me, but I decided that wouldn't really work either. Oh well.

Divya's last line is based on something Silver says in "Treasure Planet" (one of my favorite Disney movies) when he's worried that Jim is growing on him too much and the other pirates will notice – "Getting in too deep here. Next thing you know, they'll be saying I've gone soft."

Geez I quote movies a lot, heh. Please review :3


	5. someone who understands

Thank you I, Amongst-Azareth, twin1, kris the ninja pirate, Tuli-Susi, and Killani for your reviews!

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………someone who understands……………………………

After helping the boy tuck in and watching him fall asleep almost immediately, Divya wandered around the apartment aimlessly for a while, trying to find something to do. _Cook? Not in the mood. Play her violin? Probably too loud. Clean? As if. _

She did pick up a few more things over her travels up and down the hallway, including the half dozen shoes she had thrown on the floor during her… 'discussion' with Jace. _Just because I almost tripped on them, _she thought defensively, sliding a surreptitious glance toward the couch. _I don't even know his name_, she realized.

Divya didn't know how long she stood there before the phone rang, scaring her out of a silent contemplation of her young houseguest. She scrambled into the kitchen to pick it up, relieved though not terribly surprised to hear Jace's voice on the other end. _After all, who else calls me?_

"Hey, how is he?" was the first thing she heard.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," she replied resentfully.

"What? Oh, sorry." He sounded somewhat sheepish and she felt a little bad for taking offence. _Why else would he call, anyway. He was just here an hour ago. He doesn't need to talk to me._

"The kid's fine too. I gave him something to eat."

"He woke up? Great! What's he doing now?"

"Sleeping."

"Oh. That's probably good I guess," Jace replied.

"Yeah, he seemed pretty out of it even when he was awake."

"Exhaustion?"

"Yeah." She bit her lip. "There's another thing. I don't think he speaks English."

"Really?"

"He certainly didn't say anything I'm recognized."

"Maybe he's bilingual?" Jace suggested hopefully.

"Maybe," was her nonchalant answer. "Anyway, bigger problem: I've got to work tomorrow."

"On Christmas Day?"

"I don't celebrate Christmas," she said flatly.

"Ok, what do you want me to do?"

"Take the kid."

"To my brother's house?"

"Uh, yeah, duh. Why not?"

Jace was silent for a second. "What if it freaks him out, being taken somewhere? He doesn't know who I am."

"Doesn't know me either, and there's no way he's staying here alone."

"I know, I know. Could your neighbors watch him?"

"Who, the mean ones?"

"No, what about the family next door?"

"Oh, the happy people."

"Yeah. Can't you ask them for a favor?"

"Do I have to?" she whined pathetically.

"Please? I'll be there in the afternoon. If they can't I'll come back and get him, or if they need to do something later I can leave my brother's house early."

"Uuuugh…."

"Please?"

"Fine! Damn you."

"Ok! I'll call you back later to see how it went. I've got to go back, I'm still at the restaurant with Shelby and her folks. We were just waiting on dessert. I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, whatever," Divya growled, and hung up.

Jace frowned at his cell phone, watching the screen light blink the length of his call, and then flipped it closed with a snap. _At least she fed the boy, I suppose._ With Divya, one never really knew whether she would do something or when it would suit her to do so.

Still preoccupied with the situation he had created, he walked back into the dimly-lit dining room of the fancy restaurant Shelby's parents had brought them to. He was so distracted that he almost walked right past their table before Shelby reached out and grabbed his hand, asking pitifully, "Are you leaving?"

"Oh! No, I was just… walking…" he answered lamely, taking his seat beside her. She settled her head against his shoulder, so he put his arm around her back and let her lean against his chest.

"So what were you doing then?" asked Shelby's mother pointedly.

"I just had to check up with a friend of mine."

"Oh? About what?"

"Well, we rescued a child off the streets near her place and I left him there so I could come here, but she's not terribly comfortable with the whole thing so I called to make sure she was ok."

"I don't blame her. Seems quite a risky business."

"It would be cruel to leave him. It's so cold outside tonight, he'd freeze."

"But you saved him, so it's ok," Shelby cooed, trying to get his attention back. "Right?"

He looked down at her as she gazed up at him. "Right," he answered quietly. She smiled and reached up to kiss him tenderly on the lips, and he held her closer to respond to her touch.

"See?" her mother said proudly. "You have a good girl here, Jason. Remember that and take care of _her_."

"I know," Jace replied, looking at Shelby pensively, as the waitress walked approached the table with desserts and coffee.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Yup, Jace's real name is Jason. But we like Jace better **:D**

I'm working on finding a Russian translator. 'Rustan dot com' and 'applied language dot com slash free translation' seem to agree, and I found an alphabet on 'master Russian dot com slash blalphabet dot sthml' (remove all spaces) that puts Russian letters into cursive which mostly convert into this alphabet. Hopefully this will show up.

Sorry updating took so long! School got in the way, but it's the weekend now! YAY

Please review!


	6. swallowed pride

Thank you kris the ninja pirate, If I say I love you, twin1, Dacen Jace, and I for your reviews!

Sorry Kai hasn't been around much since the first chapter. Once he wakes up he'll be much more present, but since only a couple hours have passed since the story started, he hasn't had the chance. Don't worry! He's just tired. I didn't know the OC's would take on such a prominent role in the story; I didn't even know there would be more than one. Kai will be back soon. Thanks for putting up with the story development! This is the last chapter of this first night.

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki. Though since they aren't really featured in this or the last chapter I suppose this is unnecessary.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………swallowed pride……………………………

_Ok, you can do this._

The young woman walked up to the door, raised her hand to knock, froze, and turned around. She paced down the hall and back, as she had done a several dozen times already, working up her courage again. _It's just a favor. People ask for them all the time. Damn I don't want to do this! _

Divya glanced at her own door as she passed, resisting the urge to give up and run back inside. _I told Jace I would ask for help, so I have to do it. I can't lie to him. He would find out, he always can read me. _

_Come on, you don't want to lie to your best friend._

She marched up to the green door, shutting her eyes and biting her lip between her teeth. Her fist banged against the dark metal several times, making an eerie echo in the empty stairwell. After a few moments she heard a slight noise inside and faced the spy hole in the door so the person inside could see who she was.

A bolt was undone and the heavy door opened an inch, still safely chained shut. "Is there a problem, miss?" inquired a male voice from inside.

"No, um, hi, I'm your neighbor from 305," Divya started awkwardly, gesturing behind her at her doorway. _Oh to be inside my own apartment right now…_. "I just… need to ask a favor."

"Who is it, Miles?" another voice asked, and Divya heard Mr. Elipidios reply, "Girl who lives next door, she says."

"Oh! Darma is it?" the woman answered cheerfully, moving in front of the door where her husband had been. "How are you, honey?"

"Um, I'm fine," Divya said edgily.

"Why don't you come in and we can chat for a bit?" she replied, already unlocking the door and pulling it open. Divya put on a smile that she hoped looked genuine as the plump older woman looked her up and down. "Why look at you! You look lovely, doesn't she Miles? Come on in, honey, don't want to stand out in the cold all night now do we?" And Agatha took a gentle hold of Divya's upper arm and hospitably led her inside the apartment. Divya heard Miles relock the door behind them.

"Wonderful timing, we were just making some tea and watching the Christmas programs," Agatha began, leading Divya into the sitting room. It was odd how different their apartment was from hers, even though the layout was exactly the same. She might have lived in her solitary space, but Agatha and Miles had made theirs into a true home. It made her feel a little bit homesick as she looked around after being pushed to sit on a deep poufy couch, Agatha bustling across the way to grab a plate of cookies out of the kitchen before settling down beside Divya on the couch and offering her the plate.

"Now, cheery, how are you? We've barely seen you since your mother came over with you – when was that, Miles? September? Anyway, Delia, it has been so long! You must have so much to talk about. Have you been having a wonderful time? The city can be such fun for you young folks. Do you have a boyfriend yet? That young man who comes every so often seems very attractive, you should go with him. Wouldn't that be lovely, Miles?"

Divya looked helplessly at Agatha's husband, who had picked up a book and was slowly turning over the pages, as he nodded and said placidly, "Oh, yes, lovely. The girl had a favor to ask, dear."

"Oh, did you, Diane?"

"Yes. It's Divya actually."

Agatha just nodded serenely, and Divya decided to forget the issue of her name. "Well, my friend and I – the nice-looking young man who was here earlier? – sort of… found a boy this evening."

"Oh, how interesting!"

"So my friend, Jace, couldn't take care of him because he had to go somewhere and I have to work tomorrow –"

"Tut-tut, working on Christmas day? Poor dear." Agatha patted her hand sympathetically.

"And I need someone to look after the boy while I'm at work, and I hoped I could ask you?" She paused, and then added, "please?"

"Oh, Dora, certainly we would love to watch him, wouldn't we, Miles?"

"Thank you, Mrs. Elipidios!"

"Aww, just call me Agatha, dearie. When shall we be needed then?"

"I have to be at work at nine, so like eight-thirty tomorrow morning?"

"Lovely, then. Enough time to call the kiddies and wish them a happy Christmas. My daughter has three little ones, you know. They'll be up before the sun looking for their presents, bless them!"

"Yes," Divya said, angling to stand up. "How cute. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it."

"Are you going so soon, dear?"

"Um, well, I'd better get back and make sure he's still asleep, you know."

"Oh, of course," Agatha said. As Miles got up to open the door, his wife stood to give Divya a hug. "Everything will be lovely, don't you worry. We'll call at eight-thirty then."

"Thank you," Divya said again, before stepping out into the corridor. It was only seconds before she was back safely in her own apartment. She leaned against the inside of the door, breathing deeply as her stress slowly dissipated. _It's ok… I did it, I have someone to look after things tomorrow. I asked for help. _ After a minute she got back to her feet and walked down the hall, shedding her shoes carelessly. As she passed the den, her eyes strayed to the couch. She stopped and leaned against the doorless doorframe, gazing into the darkened room. _The source of all this trouble…_

"Emmmh," she sighed. Suddenly she felt completely drained and just wanted to go to bed. Her clothes were soon strewn across the floor of her bedroom, having been replaced with pajamas, but as she brushed her teeth her bare feet led her back down the short hallway to check the den again, and again as she was drying her face. She finally entered the room to lean against the couch and take an appraising look at the boy sound asleep under her blanket. He looked peaceful, still a bit dirty, and didn't appear to have moved since she had last seen him.

"Good night," she said softly in his direction. _Now I'm talking to myself. Great._ She walked back to her bedroom, flopped down in bed, and then realized that she had shut all the lights off. When she was a kid there was always a light on so she could find her way around at night. She crawled out of bed to flip on a light in the kitchen, and then in the bathroom. _That should do it, if he gets up in the night. I don't even care what he does anymore, I just need sleep._

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Well, Agatha is much nicer than Shebly's mother. I expected Divya to go ask the family that Kai had seen through the window from the abandoned building across the street, but then Miles and Agatha were there instead. The family lives on the second floor anyway. Interesting how things turn out, hehe.

Please review!


	7. somewhere between

Thank you kris the ninja pirate, I, and twin1 for your reviews! And Happy Birthday I, that's the same day as my twin brothers' birthday XD

Yay Kai's back!

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………somewhere between……………………………

_5:36_

_5:36_

_5:37_

A clock between two third-floor windows blinked a faint red light across the small living room, dark except for the glow from the kitchen across the hall.

Two more red lights flashed back as Kai opened his eyes suddenly. He stared at the clock, wondering why he had not been called out of bed. It was well after five already. Shifting slightly, he saw a blue shine and reached out to pick up his beyblade. His hand brushed against something else, something that should not have been there, and he blinked, trying to focus. A plastic tumbler? And there was a dish next to it.

Why would someone leave food in his room and not wake him up? Had he been sick? Maybe he had been injured in a beybattle. No, then he would be training even harder.

He rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up onto his knees, looking around. He was on a couch, not his bed, and none of the surroundings were familiar. There were windows across the room. He stood up and walked over to them as steadily as he could.

Outside, a street several floors below was lit by a few streetlamps and the reflected glow of a fresh white cover over the ground. Snow, that was familiar, but why was he in a city?

He stared out the window for a few more seconds, then turned back to the room. From where he stood it was obscured by the glare of bright light. Lowering his eyes against the harsh intensity, he walked quietly around the couch toward the light. There was no sound that he could hear, except the whine of a car passing outside. He looked into the lit room and saw… no one.

There had to be people somewhere, they had left the light on. Backing out of the kitchen, relieved to return to the gentle darkness, his eyes strayed to his right and his feet followed. There was a door securely locked, but from his side, so he probably was not being imprisoned. A few coats and scarves hung on hooks from the wall and shoes littered the floor. He reached up to peek out the hole in the door and saw a few other doors leading off a stark stairwell. Certainly not an attractive place.

Turning back, he found himself on a hallway leading down the center of… wherever he was. A few steps forward and to the left was the room he had woken up in, and to the right was the brightly-lit, empty room. Further down, another light showed faint compared to the florescent kitchen light. He crept up on it and found a washroom. Might as well make use of it.

_Maybe I am sick,_ he thought a few minutes later, staring at the mirror set above a sink. He couldn't remember getting here, and he had also noticed that the clothes he wore were none he recognized, which made him even more uncomfortable.

In the room across from the bathroom, the owner of the apartment had awoken to the sound of water running. _Damn that loud toilet_, she thought, rolling over and clamping a pillow over her head. Then sense took over and she realized that meant someone else was awake.

Divya jumped out of bed and threw open her door just as the other person opened the bathroom door. They stared at each other for a moment, unmistakable confusion crossing the features of the boy Jace and she had found.

"Hi," she said finally, "how are you?" He continued to stare at her. _Great, now I know he doesn't speak English, if he's actually conscious and still can't understand me._

Kai frowned, contemplating the woman's strange speech and realizing he had heard a lot of it recently. _So I definitely got out of Russia, but where am I?_

He understood that the woman's words were some kind of greeting, so he responded in kind, surprised when she smiled slightly.

_Oh well, at least he's friendly,_ Divya thought_. I can't deal with this right now, it's too early._

She gestured for him to follow and walked into the kitchen, heading for the fridge. Kai followed, reluctant and uncertain, rubbing his eyes at the stingingly bright light.

Divya glanced back to see the boy rubbing his eyes sleepily. _Good, maybe he'll go back to bed so I can._ She pulled down a few boxes of cereal from over the fridge and set them on the counter, then grabbed juice and milk out of the fridge.

Kai watched food being set out, still trying to remember how he had gotten here. He looked up as he was handed a glass and bowl.

"Dig in," Divya said, waving at the counter, and went to get herself a drink.

Kai took the gesture as an invitation and decided to act on it before she changed her mind. He glanced through the brightly-colored boxes, choosing one at random. The woman picked up a different one on her way to the small table beyond the counter. Kai put cereal and milk in his bowl and followed her. There was a spoon ready when he sat down.

They sat in silence, Kai rigid and subdued with his eyes on his bowl of food, Divya staring blankly at the wall as she ate out of her cereal box and sipped water. As the clinks of the spoon on the plastic bowl ceased, she rolled up the cereal bag inside its box and looked squarely at her houseguest for the first time.

He caught her look and returned it. Despite his quiet stance, she could tell that he was in no way meek or submissive. _There is fire in those red eyes_, she thought, the irony of the words making her want to laugh. _They were actually rather attractive once you got over the strangeness of the color._

Kai was getting impatient with the woman's constant stares, and so was relieved when she reached a hand toward him, saying a few words that ended with a particularly strange one which he gathered was her name. They shook hands as he told her his own name.

"Kai," she repeated with a nod. Yawning, she instructed, "put that in the sink," pointing to his bowl and across the kitchen. He followed her gesture and stood, and she echoed his movement, stretching widely. "I'm going back to bed, are you?"

The boy looked up at her, hands stuck in the pockets of her old hoodie, and she huffed in defeat. "Do you know anything I'm saying?" she asked hopelessly. To her surprise he nodded once.

"But you don't speak English?"

"Niet."

She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Well, at least we're part way there."

She gestured toward the couch and he walked there, stopping when he stood on the other side of it. He eyed her as she put a hand on her hip and crawled back onto the cushions, pushing the blanket out of the way.

"Good night," she said pointedly, and disappeared down the hall. Kai sat there on the couch for a few minutes, annoyed at taking orders from a woman he didn't even fully understand and at not knowing where he was or why. Eventually he became tired again, and curled up under the blanket, pulling Dranzer out of his pocket. His fingers curled around the comfortingly familiar shape of his blade, and it wasn't long before the inhabitants of the apartment were again sound asleep.

_6:01_

_6:02_

_6:02_

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

I'm trying to figure out how much Kai remembers. And he is sick (which is freaking him out) so he spaced on most of getting to the city. Then he was asleep last parts of the story or not really conscious, so he doesn't remember that either. Altogether, he's confused, lost and doesn't know what's going on and no one has explained it to him, none of which is making him happy. Poor boy.

--edit-- Thank you Suzuran for fixing the translation of HET (Russian alphabet) to niet (pronunciation)!

Please review 3


	8. unravel

Thank you Suzuran for the review and the help, and kris the ninja pirate, I, FlamingWolfGirl, If I say I love you, and twin1 for your reviews!

I'm so sorry about the wait! It's finals season and I'm supposed to be studying (gaaah) so I can't work on this much until I go home. So the next chapter probably won't be up until at least Friday. I made this chapter a little longer though.

Kai's awake. I hope he's not too OOC.

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

…………………………… unravel……………………………

It was with more annoyance than usual that Divya slammed on her alarm clock and got out of bed less than two hours later, rushing to wash her hair and get ready. _At least I already ate breakfast,_ she thought as she answered the door to let in Agatha and Miles. Then, in a rush, she ran off to catch the bus heading downtown.

Agatha moved in and immediately found the broom closet, intent on giving the apartment a good scrubbing. No space she occupied for more than a few minutes could remain in such a state. It was a good thing that Miles had come with her, for she had been barely able to listen to Divya's explanations of where she would be and such, so distracting was the mess and her plans for eradicating it. _Start with the kitchen, pick up first and then mop…_

So it was Miles that Kai first saw when he finally roused himself. Instinctively worried by the sight of a gray-haired head he hunkered down under the big blanket, praying the old man had not noticed his movement. That must be the one in charge, Kai decided, though he had never seen him before. _Not one of Grandfather's regular men._

The thought had popped into his head before he was even aware of it forming. _Must have been a trick of my mind. Just forget it. No more thoughts of Russia,_ he scolded himself. _I'm never going back._ And he took an appraising look at the man in the chair next to the window.

He was reading a book, seemingly innocent enough. _Yeah, as if you could fool me_, Kai thought smugly. _If he tries anything, we can take him down, Dranzer._

_-- … certainly… --_

There were other noises from the hallway, a faint swooshing and the tap of feet. As Kai listened he also became aware of warm, delicious smells permeating the air.

_Trying to bribe me with food? Heh, no chance. I'll just get myself together and make a break for it. No, that would be rash. Wait for him to move first. Establish how many of them there are. Identify possible witnesses. At least I already know the layout of this area, except for that back room. There could be any number of them in there. _

He listened carefully, training his breathing down to bare minimum in order to hear more clearly, but the only noise he could identify in the nearby vicinity was that swooshing. _Perhaps a machine, but what kind of machine makes that kind of noise?_

Kai lay under the comforter, determined to outlast the old man and run for it when he moved. _Shame I don't know where my shoes are. I'll have to take some from near that door. _The smell of food was also starting to bother him. He glanced to where he had seen the clock before, and saw that more than five hours had passed since he had been sent back to bed by that woman. _Five hours! I must be sick, I don't sleep this much. Ever. _

"Miles, could you help me with this?" a woman's voice spoke from the hallway. Not the same one as was here last night, Kai noticed, wondering where she had gone. Perhaps back into the other room, the one he had not seen, since that was where she had been before. The old man had put his book down and was walking toward the voice. _Now's my chance._

Kai's bare feet hit the floor as he slipped out of under the blanket and around the couch, keeping an eye out for any other people. The old man had his back turned down the hall. _Where is the woman?_ Kai wondered, as he eased around the corner and to the door. It was locked, and all the shoes were gone. _Shoot. Have to do without then._

He was just reaching to unlock the bolt when a voice from behind him said, "Oh, look Miles, he's awake!" and he almost jumped out of his skin.

Flattening himself against the door, Kai watched an old woman and the old man walking toward him. This was it. He flinched instinctively and shut his eyes as the woman's hand moved toward his face.

But she didn't slap him. The touch was tender as she gently pushed his hair back, and said comfortingly, "There, there, did we wake you? I'm sorry. I made up some lovely soup, and it's almost ready. Are you hungry?"

Kai's eyes opened and he looked up at her with confusion and doubt. What was with this place? Every time he woke up someone coddled him and then fed him. It was like they were trying to take care of him._ Who are these people?_ he thought suspiciously.

But he nodded slightly, knowing that was the response she was looking for, and then took a look around at what else had changed since the night. Besides all the shoes disappearing, there was not much he really knew was different, though he could tell the place was getting a solid cleaning. His attention didn't return to the woman in front of him until he heard his name.

_And how do they know who I am?!_ Then he recollected telling the younger woman; she must have passed on the information.

"Why don't you go wash up and then we'll have lunch?" Agatha told the boy, sliding a hand around his shoulder and leading him down the hall. "I'm sure you'll feel better once you're nice and clean. Wait here just a moment."

Kai stood stiffly still as he was handed a towel and another set of clothes. The old woman nudged him toward the bathroom and he walked inside reluctantly. _They may act nice but they still keep telling me what to do,_ he thought drearily, locking the door behind him. _Then again, I suppose being clean wouldn't be such a bad thing_. At least they hadn't started giving him harsh orders yet. That would probably come later.

Kai undressed, setting Dranzer on the edge of the sink, turning the water taps, all the while thinking, _What if I'm not able to get away soon enough?_

His brows knit together at the distressing thought as he stepped into a stream of warm water. It ran down his skin and through his hair, calming him a bit. The people here were not so bad. They seemed to, well, almost want him there.

_**Get up, boy!**_

_**Work harder; you're too weak!**_

Kai put his hands over his face, trying to ignore the echoes in his mind from something horrible that he didn't even remember. _That's why I'm here, alone._

Tears were rising in his eyes. He scrubbed a wrist across his face, trying not to give in, but a sob was rising in his throat and becoming harder to contain by the second.

_**You're not worth anything, Kai.**_

The eleven-year-old sunk to his knees, eyes squeezed tightly shut, the tears that worked their way free lost in the shower still falling on his head. _No, no, go away, please_…

--_Kai--_

Kai nodded slightly, acknowledging Dranzer's voice, and the blade spirit sent a small lick of flame toward him. The fire sizzled as it touched the water surrounding Kai and he looked up with the crimson eyes that matched the flames.

--…_I am here… for you…--_

A broken sob escaped Kai's lips, but he nodded again and his eyes closed softly. He took a deep breath, feeling his lungs shudder and the patter of water droplets on his head. Tilting his neck back he let the rivulets run soothingly down his forehead and eyelids, across his cheeks, over his lips and chin. Slowly, all the terror and confusion faded from his mind, the discomfort from his body. By the time he stood up to wash his hair, he felt better than he could remember feeling in a long time. Had he been required to name the feeling, it would definitely have been… peace.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

I'm not entirely happy with this last part, so I may have to change it. If I do I'll make a note of it in the next chapter. It just doesn't seem to fit with the story that well. I don't know, I don't have time to fix it right now. If you're interested, I wrote another KaixRei oneshot.

Have a Merry Christmas! (if you celebrate of course)

Please review


	9. consolation

I'm so sorry this update took so long! But finals are over, I'm moved back home, and Christmas is mostly over, so I'll have more time now. I wrote a longer chapter to apologize and as a Christmas present.

Thank you twin1, Tuli-Susi, Nameless Little Girl and I for your reviews! This story is now on the top of all my stats lists, actually as of a few weeks ago. ––smile—

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………consolation……………………………

**Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. **

Divya stared at her fingernails, drumming them against the counter. She ran her other hand distractedly through her dark hair and looked up.

There were a fair number of people walking through the mall vestibule where she was working behind a jewelry counter: singles, families, couples. She watched a woman of about her own age reaching up to kiss the man beside her and went back to drumming her fingers.

_How long has it been? Two, three hours?_ she thought. _Aah, this is why I don't want a family._

She hated to admit it, but she was worried. A ball of nerves to be exact. _Maybe it was not such a good idea to work today._

It wouldn't have been so bad if it was just her concert that she had to worry about, though that was her major reason to be stressed out. She was first violin in the orchestra tonight and had a solo. That was what she had been expecting to worry about. Then there was her apartment. Normally she wouldn't have to give her home a second thought, but today was different. There were two people she barely knew in her house in charge of a boy she didn't know at all and they were all doing who knows what while she was stuck in this mall watching people with nothing better to do walking around in a sated daze. Almost none of them were actually trying to get anything done; mostly they were just on leisurely walks through the festively-lit central hall between many closed shops.

_Then there's Jace._

She glanced at the kissing couple, who were now looking at rings in a nearby counter, and sighed. _I treat him like he's my brother. He's not interested. He has a girlfriend for goodness sake! _

_But I still… I love…_ She couldn't bring herself to even admit it even privately.

The worst part was that she was sure he didn't notice. They were together frequently, but it was never enough. He had his own life and even though they were good friends, he had other people to be concerned with and spend time with. _Like Shelby_. She groaned and turned to lean her back against the counter.

There was a phone behind her, and a new thought popped into her head. _Call him_.

_But I have nothing to say. It's not like I can really wish him a Merry Christmas if I don't celebrate it. He probably wants to spend time with his family and with his girlfriend anyway. And I don't even have any updated information about the boy… Kai… _

"Waiting for someone?"

Divya whipped around to see a handsome stranger with a jovial smile and bright blue eyes watching her, leaning one elbow casually against the other side of her counter. She straightened, saying in a rush, "Can I help you find anything?"

He grinned. "No, not really."

"Oh." She eyed him doubtfully, wondering what he wanted.

Nodding in the direction of the couple at the ring counter, who were talking animatedly with each other and several of Divya's co-workers, he explained, "I'm waiting for my sister there, and her new fiancée. Our whole family is here somewhere. We're going to dinner later but for now…" He paused and looked back at her. "Sorry. I'm talking a lot, huh?"

"Yeah, kind of…" she trailed off as he grinned fetchingly at her. "Not that it matters because, frankly, they're the only people buying anything right now and I don't have anything to do but think –"

"Worry?"

Dropping her gaze, she nodded once.

"About what?"

She looked up at him through loose pieces of her black hair with it's barely-visible crimson highlights that had fallen in front of her face as she ran her fingers through it earlier, daring him to keep prying.

"Too personal?" He grinned again. _ He does that a lot_, she thought as he continued. "Well, how about I talk a bit then? And then you can tell me why you're not happy. I hate to see such a beautiful lady as you lonely on such a day as this."

"Oh no?" she answered, but couldn't help smiling a little at his infectious, engaging personality. Comfortably he leaned closer, flicking longish blond bangs away from his face.

"Of course not. You see, I must confess that I am a terrible flirt. I love to please beautiful women and make them smile. See, you look even prettier with that lovely smile. Don't get angry, I mean it. A lot of girls would be blushing now. I guess you're not like that?"

"No, I'm really not."

"I didn't think so. So what are you like?"

"Myself."

"Would that self be interested in doing something tonight?"

"Sorry, I'm busy."

"Aw, don't say that. You're just trying to get rid on me."

"No, I really am busy tonight."

"You don't have a date, do you? Was that the call you were waiting for? Maybe he's not worth the wait."

"No, actually I have a concert."

"You're just saying that."

"I'm performing!"

"Uh-huh." He cocked one eye-brow teasingly.

"Ever heard of the South Arts House?"

"Perhaps."

"Hey, Preston!"

Divya and the blond stranger who was apparently named Preston looked to where the smiling young woman he had indicated as his sister was waving for him to follow as her fiancée put an arm around her waist.

The stranger, Preston, turned back to her. "Duty calls," he said in mock annoyance, flashing his perfect teeth at her once more. "I have people to attend to. But I'll see you tonight."

"What!?"

"Remember to smile when you're onstage, Divya!"

Divya was distracted from retaliating by wondering how he knew her name until it occurred to her that she was wearing a nametag, and then by one of her co-workers starting to gush at her about how cute it was that that man had proposed on Christmas morning and about the gorgeous ring they had picked out for the engagement. When she was able to get a word in edgewise, she said "Lea, I'm going on break. Cover the counter for me." And taking her purse, she walked away.

_Man, he was annoying. Well, maybe not annoying so much as persistent. Is that considered attractive? At least he admitted that he's not a one-woman man; no expectations of commitment from him. Maybe I should take him up on the offer of a date,_ she thought distractedly as she paced toward the escalators. Her cell phone was already in her hand, and she dialed a number she very rarely used.

After a couple rings the receiver was picked up and she heard a deep male voice ask, "Hello?"

"Miles? Hi, this is Divya. How are things going there?"

From his seat in the living room of Divya's apartment, Miles serenely answered, "Fine, fine."

"Oh, who is it, dear?" Agatha asked, appearing around the corner.

"The girl. No, I was speaking with my wife," he said back into the phone.

"Oh, do let me talk to her," Agatha said jovially, putting down a mop to take the offered receiver from her husband, clucking "How are things at work?"

"Fine. How's the boy? Is he awake?" Divya asked back, trying not to let impatience seep into her words. She rubbed her forehead, waiting for her thoughts to settle.

"Oh, he's fine. I told him to get washed up and then we're going to have lunch. I made some lovely stew."

"That's good. He seems alright then?"

"Yes, of course, ducky."

Glancing around the practically empty upstairs hallway and across the wide-open foyer, Divya walked toward the large windows that illuminated one side of the mall. "Did Jace call, by any chance? My friend, the one who found Kai."

"No, dear."

"Oh. Alright." Divya sat down on a bench, looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the bright sun-lit advertisements and decorations spread all across the buildings outside, and sighed. "Ok, I'll call back later. Jace should be there in the afternoon."

"Don't you worry about a thing, honey. We'll all be fine here. Have a nice day, ok?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Divya hung up her phone and stared out the window, watching cars and sets of people bundled up in thick, heavy clothes against the snow and cold. Despite the weather there were many smiles to be seen, and happy voices floated up from the downstairs thoroughfare. Divya put one foot up on the bench and leaned her chin against her knee, resting her head.

_It doesn't matter that I don't have anyone, she thought dismissively. I don't need anyone. I can live alone._

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kai will star in the next chapter I promise!!

Remember those last words, they are repeated in the next chapter. Poor Divya and her angst.

If you've ever seen or read Kare Kano/His and Her Circumstances, Preston is slightly based on the character Asaba who's a total womanizer. He just sort of invaded the story on his own. We'll see if he reappears.

Please review!


	10. harden your heart

Again, I'm sorry updating is so slow. I don't spend nearly as much time on my computer at home as I do at school. And annoyingly enough this site has once again stopped sending me any of my messages.

Thank you I, Tuli-Susi, Nameless Little Girl and FlamingWolfGirl for your reviews!

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………harden your heart……………………………

Kai stared into his own scarlet eyes reflected in a mirror over the sink as he rubbed a towel over his head, mussing his hair into wild, damp blue-and-gray spikes. He had been contemplating his and Dranzer's thoughts and come to a conclusion he found quite practical.

_I don't have people, but I don't need them. I'll live alone. As soon as I leave here._

Ignoring the twinge of loneliness that followed that internal declaration, Kai picked up Dranzer off the counter, shoved his hand into a pocket of the pants he had been given to wear, and opened the bathroom door with a resigned sigh.

The floor of the hall was a little wet, he noticed with distaste, as his borrowed socks stuck to the floor and began to feel soggy. He walked faster than he would have preferred down the hallway, reaching the door to the room with the couch just in time to see Agatha say a few words into the receiver of a phone and hang up. He ducked back behind the corner, pressing his back against the wall as he listened to the elderly couple exchange a few words, naming the woman who had been there early in the morning, himself, and another person. _What is going on now?_

One of them was moving and he swung back around as the old woman came around the corner. "Oh, you're ready, wonderful! Lunch will be ready soon; come sit down."

The boy looked up at her with wide red eyes, lips slightly parted.

"Are you alright, dear? Let me feel your temperature," Agatha said in concern, putting her wrist up to Kai's forehead while gently holding him still.

Feeling trapped, Kai waited for the woman to take her hands off his chin and forehead before shaking his hair out with a defiant scowl. Agatha chuckled at the boy's pout and led him into the kitchen.

"You just sit down at the table there and make yourself comfortable. I'll get you a drink and – well, perhaps we can't have a nice chat but we'll find something to do. By the way, dear, you can call me Agatha and that is Miles over there, my husband. Now I just want to wait a few more minutes on the soup and then we can have lunch. How about some bread to start? Look at this nice baguette Miles bought yesterday…"

Kai sat down at the kitchen table after being pushed in that direction, tuning out the seemingly incessant chatter. At least the other woman, Divya, hadn't talked so much.

As he settled into a wooden chair something caught his eye – on the counter in a small pile of random objects was Dranzer's launcher. He jumped up to grab it and scooted back to his seat, hoping the matron would not notice and take it away from him.

Apparently either his movement or his concern alerted Agatha's motherly instincts despite his attempt to hide them, for as she turned back around she asked, "What is it, dear?"

He ducked, eyes fixed on hers, launcher clutched protectively against his chest.

"Oh, is that yours? I was wondering what it was when I found it under a pile of wet clothes on the floor. What does it do?"

Slightly relieved that she seemed in no hurry to part him from his precious equipment though again mystified by her lack of aggression towards him, he slid a hand into his pocket. His fingers closed around Dranzer's familiar shape, and with a quick, well-practiced motion he locked beyblade to launcher and flicked it into action.

Agatha was surprised to see the boy performed some of the first fast, voluntary motions she had witnessed from him yet. She examined him as he watched the little spinning toy he had just set across the kitchen table. Those fiery red eyes never left the blue blur, following it with such intensity that she wondered if he was trying to control its motion with his mind. His body tensed and his lips moved slightly, half-forming soft shapes as if speaking although they made no sound.

"My now, that is impressive. Miles, come see this!"

Enjoying the sight of his blade in motion Kai barely noticed her movement until the old man was standing at his elbow, also watching. Kai gave a start and Dranzer knocked against a soup bowl set on the table ready for lunch. Scowling at his lapse in concentration, Kai glanced up at Miles before settling his crimson gaze back on his blade. Dranzer circled the bowl several times before Kai summoned him into his hand.

"Very interesting," Miles murmured, shuffling to another chair around the table. Kai watched him, blade closed securely in a fist. Serenely he ignored the boy's stare and looked to Agatha, who was bustling towards them with a pot and ladle.

"Here we are, gentlemen," she smiled, "lovely fresh-made stew. I'm sure you will enjoy it. Now eat up."

"Thank you, dear," Miles answered, then looked to Kai.

Kai glanced from the old man to his wife, frowned, and licked his lips. "Thank-you," he said softly, fumbling with the odd sounds he was required to pronounce.

"Oh, you're welcome, my boy. And you, dear." She nodded to Miles.

"Hnn," Kai murmured in response, picking up his spoon.

The meal passed slowly as Agatha peppered Kai with questions, most of which he could not or did not want to answer. Some he escaped with a confused look and a few cut words in Russian to let her know he had no idea what she was talking about, but others he was forced to acknowledge though he confined his responses to short movements of his head or shoulders. She did not coax another verbal response out of him until after the discussion had finally moved from him to the absent owner of the flat.

Keeping his head down and gaze on his food in hopes that they would not notice his keen interest, Kai struggled to follow the Elipidios' thread of discussion. His grasp of the native language of this city was not bad, especially to figure out the short, blunt sentences generally directed his way. Full conversation, however, gave him trouble, because when he did not understand a word it would trip him up until he lost his place and had to start again trying to decipher the speaker's thoughts. Simpler terms like "pleased" did not bother him overmuch, but there were less straight-forward ones like "tolerable" and "cleanliness" which were hard to figure out when he could not find the root word.

_Clanlinnes… klenleeness?… klenliness… _he was speculating when the discussion halted abruptly in response to a jingle across the hall. Agatha immediately rushed over to answer it, Miles and Kai listening to "yes, of course" and "no he's a dear" and "lovely" for a few minutes before she said goodbye and hung up the phone.

"That young man Jace will be here in a few hours, he's just sitting down to Christmas lunch with his family," the matron announced as she entered the kitchen. Kai, catching the idea that he was to be passed on to someone else, stiffened.

Finding his voice abruptly he demanded, "Who."

Both Miles and Agatha turned to look at him, as surprised by his sudden interjection as by his harsh tone and the sharp look in his red eyes, now narrowed warily.

"Who is Jace?" Agatha asked in a clarifying fashion. Kai nodded shortly. "Oh, well, he is a friend of the girl who lives here. He found you out in the cold last night and a right good thing that was too."

Kai nodded again and waited for her to continue, but nothing more came. Agatha was clearing away her plate and her husband's, whisking them away to the sink as Miles followed with the left-over food. "Did you want any more?" Agatha asked in Kai's direction as she was about to put extra soup away in a Tupperware container. He shook his head, not even hungry for the little that was left in his own bowl, gaze and hands in his lap. "Well, finish up there," she encouraged, and began washing the soup pot and dishes.

A bitter feeling had gripped Kai's chest as Agatha and Miles drew away from him. It was a realization that he still had no idea where he was, who he was with, or why, and that as friendly as they might seem, these people did not know him either. _I don't belong here, in their lives, being cared for and looked after so thoughtfully. Surely they have other things to do; that must be the reason why the young woman who was here in the early morning is gone. _

His eyes stung. Angry at this unfamiliar feeling of weakness and need, afraid that he might begin to cry again in front of Agatha, he thrust his bowl aside and grabbed his launcher which lay waiting on the table. Teeth gritted, he launched Dranzer with a cut-off yell that surprised an exclamation from Agatha, mentally pushing his blade to as much power as the small kitchen could handle. The twisted roar of his feelings gradually gave way to the external emotion of blading and was lost to the heated intent and purpose he found in his sport. As Dranzer's motions grew wilder and more dangerous, Kai calmed and even relaxed slightly, though keeping himself at perfect attention.

_Forget people, Kai._

_**This **is my purpose. This is how it should be. And this…_

_This is my life._

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Please review!


	11. where do we go from here

Thank you I, Kai Hiwatari1, Nameless Little Girl, twin1 and Party in the Afterlife for your reviews!

Yay the email is finally back up and running, and I'm done buying my car and applying for summer jobs and all kind of other things I had to take care of (my first car!! It's pretty and white, thought kind of old. My brother says it's pretty sweet and I believe him). Of course now I have to pack to go back to school – it never ends XD Oh well, at least I have some free time. And I'm in a great mood because I got to read the final volume of W Juliet, one of my favorite mangas, this morning and I was just watching one of my favorite movies (Peter Pan, the live one. So cute, and the music is to die for!) Anyway, spreading the love, hope everyone's having a good day too! Now if only Kai would loosen up and smile a bit…

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………where do we go from here……………………………

Jace quickly pulled his car onto the road, joining the many cars gliding between buildings and traffic lights and pedestrians. As a light on the next block turned red he looked sideways out his window.

_Something special for your family this holiday…_

He sighed, leaving the billboard behind as traffic again began to move. It was sobering to be with his happily married brother and sister-in-law and their young children, wondering when he would have such a scene to smile over comfortably as his own father always had. Having a family of his own would be nice.

_Maybe someday Shelby will want children. _He frowned, trying to imagine the lovely, delicate blonde with a baby. It was a pretty thought but somehow it was not quite realistic. That was part of the reason why he had never really thought of asking her to marry him, though they had been dating for a while and certainly liked each other.

Remembering his mental image from the previous evening of Divya with her own brood dogging her steps, he chuckled. _That'll be the day._

And again he sobered, now to the realistic consideration that Divya was probably quite capable of caring for one child or several if she could be convinced to take the responsibility as seriously as her music.

_I would love to see her with one of her own someday, though for now just seeing her happy would be enough. She has been particularly cranky lately. Perhaps that was why she was so reluctant to take in the boy._

He didn't understand her and he knew it, not her thoughts nor her moods nor her motivations, though they were familiar enough that he could sometimes predict her actions and reactions. But that didn't mean he knew why she did things the way she did. He decided to ask his mother about it later; she usually had very good advice. In fact, that was why he had just been shopping: she had pointed out that his charity case would need such things as clothes and perhaps he wouldn't mind providing them. She had also thoughtfully directed him to a few shops that would be open despite the holiday. A bag now sat in the back of his car, holding a variety of garments he hoped would fit the young street child.

_What an odd little set we make, Divya and the boy and me. Like a movie where three random people are united by fate._

He was still contemplating this interesting grouping as he parked in front of the abandoned building where they had… met… the night before. A glance up at the windows where Divya had seen red strange light prompted the thought that it was good they had been there at that moment. And another, that if she was considerate enough to check for fire, her unwillingness to take care of the boy couldn't be entirely genuine

Two minutes later he knocked on a familiar forest green door and a cheerful older woman welcomed him inside. He almost laughed out loud at the difference in the third-floor apartment, which had obviously undergone a thorough cleaning since the night before for which he was pretty sure Divya could not take credit.

"Very nice to meet you, Mrs. Elipidios," he said cheerfully in response to her introduction, also greeting the man behind her indicated as her husband. "Wonderful job you've done with the place."

"Thank you, dear. Do call me Agatha," the woman bubbled, taking his coat as he was about to hang it up and doing it herself. "It is so nice to meet you. I am so glad we could pull together." Smiling at Jace's agreement, she continued, "Now come and sit where we can talk."

Jace warmed immediately to her happy, caring manner and let her lead him and Miles into the den. From a corner of the room the street boy looked coolly up at them as they entered. "Ah, and there he is!" Agatha commented rather unnecessarily.

Walking over to the boy, Jace extended his hand and a friendly greeting.

Startlingly red eyes swept over him before the boy met his gaze with almost a look of defiance. But the look was gone as he shook Jace's hand and provided his own name submissively.

Jace had no time to consider this unexpected reception before Agatha recaptured his attention with her chatter, but Kai sat back on his floor cushion to appraise this new stranger. From what Agatha had said this was the person who had taken him in. Comparing his effortless smile and merry green eyes to Agatha's, he decided the two could easily be related, age being responsible for the difference between the man's light brown hair and the woman's white locks. But the appearance of his supposed benefactor brought a new question to his mind – what would his required debt of gratitude be to this man for his rescue? He had some recollection of what would be expected back where he had come from…

"—my mother sent me to get a few things. Here, these are for you."

Kai blinked, returning his attention to the den to find the newcomer holding a large bag out to him. He took it uncertainly, and Jace smiled and gestured for him to open it.

Inside he found jeans, tee-shirts, a sweat shirt, a coat and a pair of boots, all roughly his size. Knowing perfectly well that they were meant for him, he was still surprised enough by this latest generosity to quietly ask "Why?"

"Why?" Jace repeated, looking blankly at him for a moment. This boy certainly was unusual, if his reaction was any indication. "Umm, because you'll probably need them, and it's the least I can do. I don't think Divya will let you wander around in her old clothes forever."

Kai nodded his understanding, still gazing at the small pile of clothes, then stood and bowed to the young man, his benefactor. When he straightened Jace was giving him a very odd look, not to mention Agatha and Miles, and he sat back down abruptly, looking away out the window. _What did I do wrong now?_ He supposed the man had only been surprised. Frustrated with the way things kept falling outside of his realm of understanding and experience, he drew up his knees and folded his arms over them, resting his chin on top. Dismissing a suggestion by Dranzer that he should pay attention to anything the man said, Kai began planning how to escape this strange group of people.

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Please review!


	12. someday I won't be lost

Thank you Nameless Little Girl, bladz-liska, I, Party in the Afterlife, Kai Hiwatari1 and twin1 and for your reviews!

I was surprised how much reaction there was to Kai's decision to leave. Unfortunately he's not the trusting type, and doesn't feel comfortable trusting them yet.

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………someday I won't be lost……………………………

"…no, don't worry about us, Agatha. We'll be fine. We're leaving soon too. Thanks again. Good night! Merry Christmas!"

Jace closed Divya's front door after ushering the Elipidios's to their home and wandered back into the den where Kai sat alone in the unlit room.

More than an hour had slipped quickly away before Agatha had broken off their conversation with the realization that she and Miles were going to be late for Christmas dinner with her daughter's family if they did not leave soon. During that time Jace had occasionally glanced over to the corner opposite the big chair occupied by Miles, noting the boy's continuing stillness. Even now, with the sun set and the city dark, he stared resolutely out the window.

Jace walked up behind him, wondering what could be holding his attention so completely. The only things to look at were the street below, glimpses of a few people passing and edges of the structures which flanked that abandoned building…

Glanced from the silent figure to the blank, dark facade, he wondered what the boy was thinking and whether it involved the place where he and Divya had found him. As the concerned green gaze slid back inside Jace found a red stare turned up on him.

There was no antagonism or resentment in those eyes, nor any thankfulness or wistfulness. In fact, they held no emotion that he could recognize; just a blank gaze as unreadable as Divya's thoughts. Jace stifled a sigh at the realization that here was one more person he would never be able to understand – at least not readily, and most likely not without help. From previous experience he knew that understanding would rarely be offered or given freely.

"So… how are you feeling?"

Kai remained motionless a few moments longer, considering, and shrugged.

Jace bit his lip thoughtfully, then flopped down on the floor in front of the boy, leaning his back against the wall so their eyes were at about the same level. From this angle, with the room behind him dark and some illumination finding its way inside from the street, the boy's red eyes seemed to smolder. They cast an eerie glow against his thin, pale face and under that unusual silver hair.

Finding those eyes boring into his own and realizing that he was staring, Jace looked away.

Kai smirked at Jace's obvious discomfort and began to study him carefully. His said rescuer was a young man about the same age as Divya, with an unsophisticated and innocent air that was very boyish and which clashed amusingly with his formal attire. He also seemed decidedly unnerved, something Kai could attribute to his own presence; a number of the other people he had crossed paths in this city had shown similar reactions.

The man was fidgeting restlessly, still looking away, in a manner that made Kai's instincts and apprehension surge. Unwilling to wait for information or be left uninformed, Kai demanded, "Why do you worry?"

Jace turned back to him, thankful that the unexpected question led into what he needed to say. Bluntly he asked, "Would you mind going somewhere tonight?"

Annoyed at the evasion of his question, Kai shot back, "Where?"

Jace gestured to the room at large, saying, "I was hoping to see my friend –"

"Divya."

"Wha- yes, how did you…?"

Folding his arms Kai ignored the unfinished question. Eventually Jace decided to forget this insight into the boy's perception, continuing, "She's performing tonight and it's important to her, so I want to be there. But I didn't know if you feel up to coming."

Kai absorbed the words while his mind reverted to its thoughts and his eyes slid back to the blank, empty windows across the street. _As empty as my soul…_ He wanted freedom; that was his only goal. These people who had taken care of him… they were very kind. But he feared that harm would follow him, the unnamed, unremembered evil he was running from, and he didn't want anyone else involved just because they had aided him. And secretly he was afraid of the feelings of weakness and loneliness that kept catching him unawares, seemingly promoted by the presence of his rescuers. It was as if some part of him yearned for company, for friendship, while the other part knew he had to go on alone to maintain his strength and calm. He was afraid that if he stayed here long, he would not be able to leave later. _Don't get attached…_

So he knew he had to leave, and it would be easiest if he could see the rest of the premises first. In the afternoon this point had seemed difficult to accomplish because of the apparent tendency to pass him from one watcher to another; he couldn't guess how many other strangers they might leave in charge of him. Now this one was offering to bring him somewhere. At least that would give him the opportunity to survey the main exit… and perhaps he could even get away tonight while they were out.

Returning his gaze from the darkened window to the young man across from him, Kai stated decisively, "I will go."

Jace's smile was one of relief, which was also apparent in his thanks. Kai watched him push the abandoned pile of new clothes closer with an apologetic, "I know they're casual, but I don't think people will mind." Finally realizing why Jace was in a shirt and tie, Kai nodded shortly and gathered up the clothes.

"Cool. I'll find something for dinner."

Jace jumped up and disappeared into the kitchen; Kai put his clothes back into their bag, which he now noticed also contained undergarments, and carried them down the hall. Entering the bathroom he found more evidence of the thorough cleaning to which Agatha had subjected the apartment and its contents, for the shower curtain rod was lined with drying clothes. Kai recognized a sleeve and pulled it sideways a little so he could see his worn coat, still dripping. But next to it was the shirt he had been wearing when he ran away, and it was nearly dry. He tugged it down off its hanger and began shedding his borrowed clothes.

Dressed and having spent some time smoothing his hair, Kai stepped back to survey the outcome. He was wearing the jeans Jace had bought with the black boots, his white shirt buttoned over a white tee-shirt and his silver and blue spikes tamed into some semblance of order. Deeming the ensemble acceptable he packed up the remainder of his new wardrobe and followed his nose to the kitchen, where Jace was carrying a plate of food to the small table.

"Pizza's up! Come eat; you can leave that in the den."

Kai deposited his bag across the hall as instructed and joined Jace, who was dishing small round food items onto two dishes. They were as wide as Kai's hand was long, made of a flat bread circle covered in red sauce and cheese. Despite their odd appearance and strange name, Kai found they were very tasty and devoured several before an exclamation by Jace distracted him. Afraid that he had done something wrong, perhaps eaten too much, the boy froze and locked his eyes on the young man.

It was a false alarm, as Jace was simply trying to wipe a stray dollop of tomato sauce from the front of his shirt, a hopeless cause and one which was causing him considerable annoyance. Finally dropping his napkin in frustration, he caught Kai's wide-eyed look and grinned sheepishly. "I just can't… well, you know. Divya does too. I'm hopeless," he said, shaking his head and inspecting his stained shirt front. "Nothing I can do about it now." Leaning against his hand while resting his elbow on the table, he took another bite of pizza and commented, "You seem to have made out alright."

Uncertain how to reply, Kai dropped his gaze to his almost empty dish. Jace grinned indulgently and pushed the serving dish toward Kai with a friendly, "Still hungry?"

That question Kai could answer, and readily. Eagerly he helped himself to another of the strange flat tomato-and-cheese breads, and the pair spent a comfortable though mostly silent few minutes devouring the rest of the pizzas.

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Hehe, yay for bonding over the convenience of frozen mini pizzas

Please review!


	13. rewind

Thank you bladz-liska, Killani, I, twin1, Party in the Afterlife, Nameless Little Girl, and FlamingWolfGirl for your reviews!

Sorry about the long wait. School starts again tomorrow XD but the next chapter is already started. Thanks for sticking with the story!

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………rewind……………………………

"See, Central Park is down that street. Lots of kids bey blade there."

Jace glanced in the rear-view mirror to see his passenger looking interestedly out the side window. He had accidentally learned what the strange metal disk clutched in the boy's fist when they found him last night was, because his nephew had received a similar one for Christmas that morning and had delightedly told his Uncle Jacey all about the present. Agatha had confirmed the street boy's interest in the sport by relating how Kai had spent the half the afternoon playing with the little toy, an activity she said involved a lot of yelling and would be best enjoyed out-of-doors.

Jace had asked Kai about blading after dinner, and with some encouragement Kai had told Jace about his blade. It was obvious how proud Kai was of the metal bit, both from his scattered words and from how he seemed to always keep it close at hand. The boy had actually smiled at the shiny blue toy as he struggled for the right words to share his interest with his rescuer.

Though unfamiliar with blading, Jace visited Central Park often enough to know that there were often clusters of children and teens and even some adults engaging each other in mock battle. Never having been introduced to the sport he seldom took the time to watch these skirmishes, preferring to join pick-up games of Frisbee, soccer or football. He had promised to watch his nephew blade, but it would be a while before the five-year-old was ready for the park.

Kai, on the other hand, would probably easily fit in with those blading enthusiasts. Unable to judge from Kai's demonstration he had no idea how good the boy was at the sport, yet it seemed to be one thing the preteen was genuinely fascinated by and involved in. Jace made a mental note to take the boy to the blading park sometime, maybe tomorrow.

Traffic picked up and they drove past the corner, drawing away from Central Park and closer to the Arts House. By the time they had parked and walked to the theater, the area was already very busy. Jace had hoped he could wish Divya good luck before the concert, but the back door guards refused him admittance and pointed him in the direction of the front door.

The concert hall was full of classical music fans and their families. Kai was not the only child in the crowd, nor the youngest, which reassured Jace, who was not accustomed to being accompanied by a child and not entirely sure how to handle the situation. Luckily Kai was content to follow Jace's steps and stayed close despite the press of people.

Kai dogged his preoccupied rescuer's movements carefully, not ready to lose himself in the crowd. There were far too many people here for his comfort. He felt slightly more comfortable when Jace led him into a row of chairs and sat; at least here he had some personal space, even though they were completely surrounded by others and not at a convenient proximity to the exit.

He was analyzing nearby audience members when the house lights dimmed. Someone in a tuxedo introduced the theme of the concert, then the first musical selection and its composer. The familiar name gave Kai a jolt and he stole the program lain across Jace's lap while the man was applauding in order to read the name again.

He was right: it was one he knew. Scanning the words around that one Russian name, he found a few other people he had heard of and, among many English words, the name of his country.

Jace glanced down to see what his companion was doing and noticed his slow study of the program. "Can I help?" he asked offhandedly.

The boy's frown and shaken head drew his attention closer and he looked curiously at the program to see what was holding the boy's interest. Kai was staring at a line of the performance description, something about the range of musical talent of the chosen Russian composers.

Jace looked from the words to the boy's face. His red eyes were fixed but oddly inattentive, as if he was staring at something inside his head rather than in front of his eyes.

In truth the boy was paralyzed by the rush triggered by that word. _Russia…_ A slew of memories he didn't remember happening were crowding through his mind, overwhelming and confusing him. Bits and pieces of thoughts and feelings washed over him inescapably. That was the most frightening part, the thing they all had in common: he couldn't escape.

A hand closed over his shoulder and he jumped. Whipping around to confront an attacker he instead found himself face-to-face with a newly familiar pair of concerned green eyes.

Jace looked worriedly into the boy's wide, frightened eyes. _What upset him so much? _The boy was now glancing around the hall anxiously, and the shoulder in Jace's grip was trembling.

"Kai, Kai, what is it? Are you alright?"

The boy shook his head. As the people around them began to applaud again, Jace glanced up at the stage to see that the introducer had finished and the orchestra was filing onto the stage. At his side Kai had settled back into his seat, his back pressed far back into the cushion but his calm returning.

Jace repeated his query after the boy's wellbeing, and this time received a small nod in answer. Deciding to leave him alone, Jace turned his attention to where a certain black-haired woman was striding into the center of the theater stage.

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Please review!


	14. just breathe

Thank you kris the ninja pirate, Destiny Quill, Party in the Afterlife, bladz-liska, Nameless Little Girl, and kai's-sad-Bby for your reviews!

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

…………………………… just breathe……………………………

Despite the strong front she always carefully presented, Divya was terrified. Soloing was the one thing that made her heart beat so fast that she was afraid her chest might burst. The only thing, of course, other than Jace.

If he had been allowed to give her his good wishes, they might have driven her beyond her ability to cope. As it was, while Kai's living nightmares came back to haunt him, she was about ready to have a panic attack.

She hid her fear behind a dazzling smile as she took the stage and greeted the large audience. It looked like a full house, a good sign. The positive thought carried her through to her chair near the conductor's podium regardless of the fact that a full house meant that many more people would hear her play.

Once the music began it carried away all thought and worry as Divya immersed herself in the soothing flow of sound. In the audience, as his terror faded, Kai debated whether it was a bad thing that the composers were from Russia until Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite lulled him to sleep.

Unaffected by the calming symphony Jace remained in a heightened state of worry over both his friend performing and the recently distressed boy at his side. It was slightly reassuring when he noticed the boy was asleep, leaving him free to keep an eye on Divya.

She was smiling, a devastatingly beautiful smile that paralyzed him – gaze on her, deaf to the music and devoid of thought or emotion beyond the need to continue watching her. It came as a shock when the audience around him stood in a final round of applause to signal the end of the concert. Slowly recovering from his blissful reverie to find Kai poking him with a concert program, he grinned at the impudent kid and stole it back.

"Come on, let's find Divya."

Kai led the way so gravely that Jace couldn't help grinning at the contrast with his recent childish behavior. But the lobby was so crowded that it was all he could do to keep Kai in sight among many taller people, and with trying to watch him and look for Divya it was more of an accident that he eventually found her.

She was entering from a side door, switching her violin case hand-to-hand so she could brush red-tinted bangs away from her face. Their eyes met and held each other.

"What are you doing here?" she asked ungraciously. Jace's heart, which had swelled at the sight of her, deflated a little.

"We came to watch the concert. It was… great. You look beautiful."

"Oh, thanks." She ducked her head so he missed the slight pink color rising in her cheeks. However it washed out immediately as another, even more unexpected admirer called over the crowd, "Divya! Bellissima!"

Both Jace and Divya turned with considerable confusion to stare at the blond stranger pushing toward them, both shocked when he took Divya's hand and kissed it.

"But – what – Preston?!" she sputtered as the other man offered her a bouquet and said soothingly, "You must be tired. Come to dinner with me."

Divya was speechless. Jace demanded, "Who are you?"

"Name's Preston. I promise to make your sister very happy."

"We're…" Jace's bewilderment seemed to have obstructed his throat; luckily Divya took over.

"He's not my brother! He's… a friend."

_Except, that wasn't helpful,_ Jace mourned, watching mutely as Preston tried to put an arm around Divya. She resisted the attempt.

"Ah, good, for a moment I was afraid you two might be dating. Come on, Divya, I promise you'll have a wonderful time. Have you ever been to La Maison?"

"I thought you were having dinner with your family."

"That was this afternoon, ma cherie."

"Shouldn't you be with them?"

"No, I came here to be with you."

Trying to think of more objections Divya turned to Jace for help; Preston followed her gaze to evaluate his apparent rival. When neither of the others spoke for a moment, Preston commented, "You know, there's something on your shirt."

Divya watched pityingly as Jace reddened, glancing at the offending shirt in a way that proved he definitely knew the spot was there. There was something so vulnerable in his expression and slumped shoulders that she almost couldn't resist the need to comfort him. He wasn't a man like the one standing next to her, but she was not interested in Preston; she wanted Jace to be the one holding her.

But Jace was relinquishing the fight, taking a step backwards. His green eyes, normally so merry, were flat as he glanced at her, then at Preston. "Good night, then," he said softly, falling back another pace.

_Don't leave me with him! _Divya thought frantically. "Jace!"

He looked at her again. Not knowing what to say to keep him from abandoning her, she opened her mouth once, twice, then asked a question that froze Jace in his tracks.

"Where's Kai?"

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Bellissima is Italian for "very beautiful" and ma cherie means "my darling" or "sweetheart" in French – Preston is a schmoozer. We already knew that, but Jace didn't. Poor guy.

Please review!


	15. the least they gave, the most you knew

Thank you kris the ninja pirate, shadow dragon beyfan, Destiny Quill, bladz-liska, Party in the Afterlife, Nameless Little Girl, and kai's-sad-Bby for your reviews!

Sorry to leave you dangling for so long! I think that was the longest gap yet XD but I also think it's the longest chapter yet, because it's three sections. I really didn't know what I wanted to do after the last chapter, whether they would find Kai or not, etc, so I had to make some decisions before I could continue writing.

The title is from Acustic #3 again, referring to love/care/attention given to Divya from Jace and to Kai from the other four (Divya, Jace, Agatha and Miles).

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

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**Flashback:… **she didn't want Preston; she just wanted Jace.

But Jace was relinquishing the fight, taking a step backwards. His green eyes, normally so merry, were dull and flat as he glanced at her, then at Preston. "Good night, then," he said softly, falling back another pace.

_Don't leave me here with him! _Divya thought frantically. "Jace!"

He looked at her again. Not knowing what to say, she opened her mouth once, twice, then asked a question that froze Jace in his tracks.

"Where's Kai?"

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

………………………the least they gave was the most you knew………………………

A small, lone figure stood still and quiet on the snowy curb in front of the opera house, hands in pockets, shoulders raised against the cold, wind playing gently with his short spikes of gray and navy blue hair.

With saddened red eyes he perused the passing crowds through a slow flurry of fluffy white flakes, knowing the people for whom he searched would not appear. He had seen Divya arrive and watched Jace go to her like a moth to flame. Jace had stopped following him. He had escaped outside.

But now he didn't want to go any farther.

The crimson eyes rested momentarily on a man holding his daughter in his arms as a woman checked that the girl's coat was sufficiently warm. A shiver ran down Kai's spine and his hands curled tighter around the two things he had brought with him: his launcher in one coat pocket, Dranzer in the other.

He thought about the past day spent in the small apartment across the street from the old abandoned building which had given him shelter last night. Tonight he was considerably better off, well fed and in warm dry clothes; he had a much higher chance of surviving out-of-doors. There was still the issue of having no money or food and of being alone, but he could endure for at least a few days.

Shivers rocked his slim body again and he buried his chin in the collar of the puffy winter jacket Jace had given him. In the back of his mind fear still lurked, fueled by the memories which had accompanied the recognition of his country. If that was his home, it couldn't have been a good one.

His inclination to run away was as strong as ever, but now it battled a wish for comfort. Divya and Jace cared for him at least a little bit, as did Miles and Agatha. This he was almost certain of; he had spent the day analyzing their actions and words both to him and to each other, concluding that they at least did not begrudge his presence. Perhaps Divya was only slightly interested, but it was her home that had given him shelter. Agatha appeared genuinely concerned with making him feel comfortable, an unfamiliar event. He was still suspicious of Miles and uncertain of Jace, but knew that neither would harm him in the presence of the women. Jace actually seemed almost as concerned as Agatha, though less certain how to act on the feeling.

_But, could it really be true… they definitely don't need me…._

Dropping his gaze to the sidewalk to avoid the curious gazes of music patrons departing the concert hall, he started trudging down the street through the thickening snowfall.

Inside the theater lobby, as Kai pondered his situation, it was being considered from two other points of view. Jace stared wide-eyed at Divya for a moment after her question, having given the room a cursory inspection that revealed no trace of the navy-and-gray-haired boy.

"Jace? Did you bring him with you?" Divya asked uncertainly. Her friend's worried face answered the question before he said awkwardly, "I thought he would enjoy it too. But then…."

"Come on, lets find him," Divya said resolutely, escaping Preston to grab Jace's hand and pull him toward the doors. In the entryway she glanced back to make sure the other man wasn't following them and then turned to Jace.

"Hey, snap out of it. Was he doing anything unusual?"

Recovering, Jace shook his head. "No… I don't know. He slept through the concert. He was alright before then – wait, he did seem strange right before the concert started."

"What happened?" Divya asked as she buttoned up her long coat, violin case at her feet.

"I don't know. He was looking at the program, so I guess it could have been something there if he could even read it. I asked but he didn't say anything. What could have bothered him about the program though?"

"Look, don't worry about it right now. Let's just find him, ok?"

Jace nodded gratefully. She caught the expression but did not respond; there was nothing to say. It was not even clear to her why she was so adamant about finding the boy, except as a way to escape Preston. She pulled her collar higher and picked up her violin case from the floor.

"Ok, you go right, I'll go left. Call me if you find him, or I'll call you."

Once again Jace nodded, now more purposefully. He too fastened his coat and checked his collar.

"Wow, it's really snowing," Divya said as she opened the door and looked up at the sky. Turning to her friend she said, "Good luck."

Jace smiled, finally. Catching her eyes he softly answered, "Thanks."

Divya returned the smile and forced herself to walk away rather than throwing her arms around him. She thanked the cold wind for cooling her hot cheeks, burned by the melting look in those beloved green eyes, and swallowed her girly love-struck grin to take an appraising look at the snowy scene. Kai could have crossed the street or gone straight down the side walk. He could even be in the concert hall, but she didn't want to go inside without back-up. She set off straight, hoping he had stayed on this side of the road.

As her feet carried her quickly away from the hall she mused over the street boy and her reaction to him. She still really didn't know anything about him; Jace had spent more time with him awake than she had. But despite that lack of understanding she had worried as much about him today as her concert, and now that he was lost she had immediately designed a plan to look for him. It couldn't only be desperation to get away from Preston and a wish to keep Jace happy that prompted that reaction.

She tapped a toe on the curb at the corner, waiting for the walk light, glad she had worn boots. There was a ridiculous amount of snow falling in big thick flakes that seemed to stick to everything. She brushed her arms and shoulders off and resumed power walking.

_Why would he run away again? I suppose he is probably used to living on the streets. Maybe it is more comfortable to him. Plus he was with Agatha all day; that must have been… interesting. She's a sweet woman, but she smothers people. I can't imagine what he thought of her. _

_I can't imagine much about him though. How can you see through someone else's eyes if you don't even know him? _

_How far could he have gone?_

She glanced around again, taking in both sides of the street. There were still a fair number of concert-goers climbing into cars, hailing taxis, or walking along the side walk. Most of the remaining crowd was still on her side of the street, since that was the side they had started on and the snow discouraged normal foot traffic. There were a few children but they were accompanied by adults, and none had the odd two-toned hair of the boy she was looking for.

Another block farther, and she was getting worried. The crowd had almost all reached their destinations. Only a few more people were ahead of her. _If he turned and took a side road, we'll never find him. We should have taken Jace's car; at least then we could have covered more distance faster._

Glancing down to dig her cell phone out of her pocket, Divya almost walked into a tall older man of the group that she had been following, who had just reached their car. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, stepping back and around him; as he nodded, she dialed Jace's number. Just before pressing the call button she looked up to see one small figure ahead. _Kai!_

The boy must have been right in front of the other group. She ran as fast as her heeled boots would allow in the snow, exclaiming, "Kai!"

He turned. She caught up and, not knowing what to do but encouraged by her affectionate feelings towards Jace, bent down and impulsively put an arm around him. "Where are you going?"

He didn't respond for a while, drawing a sleeve across his face and sighing. When he finally faced her it was to revel wide, sad eyes.

Gently, awkwardly, she pushed his wet hair back from his forehead. The snow in his short hair was melting and if he didn't cover his head soon he was going to be very cold. Taking off her own hat she settled it over the child's head.

"You know, you are still welcome to come home with me."

The boy reached up to adjust the hat over his freezing ears and nodded slightly. Divya smiled, genuinely happy, and hugged him again.

"Ah, I was afraid you had gone."

Kai felt the woman holding him stiffen, and both looked up at the blond man standing a few feet away. Both felt the same wave of disgust at that ridiculously insincere grin.

"Are you trying to drive me crazy?" Divya asked icily, straightening.

"I am trying to please you," he answered, annoyance creeping into his voice.

"What would please me is if you stopped following me."

"I don't believe that."

"Preston! Give it up! I have a life, and I don't have time for you."

"Then why are you going to let me do this?"

He stepped closer. Kai moved in front of Divya protectively. Preston smirked.

"What's with the kid?" he said dismissively. "Another pathetic acquaintance? Go away, kid." He pushed Kai out of the way and took another step forward as Divya backed up.

Keeping her eyes on the man, Divya tried to stay calm and think over all the self-defense techniques she knew. She was not sure if Preston meant to do anything more than kiss her but even that was definitely unwelcome. If she got a good shot and was able to trip him up, she and Kai could make a run for the concert hall. There were at least a few people left there. The snow storm had left the street mostly deserted, which was not helpful.

She didn't noticed what Kai was doing, attention focused on the threat before her, so she was as shocked as Preston when the boy abruptly gave a harsh cry. Her gaze snapped to him and then back to the man, who was suddenly flat on the ground. _What…?_

The boy curtly pronounced something in his other language. Wondering if he was talking to her, Divya glanced back to see a small object fly from the ground into his hand. Pocketing whatever it had been, he looked up at her with red eyes that almost seemed to be glowing.

Dismissing that oddity as a trick of the light, Divya took his hand and began striding back in the direction of the theater's brightly-lit marquee.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kai, or really Dranzer, knocked Preston out. It's only temporary but I think that's the last we'll see of him. I didn't expect him to become so evil…

There's a picture of Jace and Divya up on my devArt site now; there's a link on my profile if you want to see it. It's called "Got Ya" – Jace is tickling her. 

Please review!


	16. fever and flaming

Thank you Destiny Quill, Not aGeisha Gurl, bladz-liska, kai's-sad-Bby, I, and kris the ninja pirate for your reviews! And thanks to those people who went to check out the artwork, I'm glad you were interested.

Yay this was added to a c2! It's called The Abbey.

Ok, this chapter is two sections. At the middle just reset your perception of time a bit. This way I could put up both without trying to integrate them – it worked in the last chapter but this one would be difficult. So you get a longer chapter!

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………ICE………………………………………

……………………………fever and flaming……………………………

_Why would he… I can't believe he did that! My gosh, that was… uugh. _Shuddering disgustedly, Divya peeked over her shoulder for the tenth time to check that Preston was not following them as she hurried back toward the concert hall. Kai's hand tightened around hers and she glanced down at the boy trotting beside her.

He looked tired. His eyes were dull and half-lidded, his effort to keep up with her strides obvious. Apologetically she slowed her pace, even though her mind was still screaming for her to run. Their destination was less than a block away. She hoped there would still be people there so they could get inside.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kai's other hand move, rubbing his wrist against his nose.

"We'll be inside soon," she said comfortingly as they stopped at the corner to check for traffic.

Kai looked up at the woman next to him but did not reply.

Pressing her lips together, Divya kept walking. _Please let the doors be open please let the doors be open…_

They reached the relatively snow-free sidewalk under the theater's marquee and Divya let go of Kai's hand and leaned her violin in a dry area so she could try the doors. _Locked, locked, locked... damn it! _Reaching the end of the row of entryways she pounded once against the glass, then turned to Kai.

He stood exactly where she had left him, hands in his pockets, gaze on the ground. She went to stand in front of him and put her hands on his shoulders, feeling them tremble as he shivered. "Kai, what's the matter?" she asked, massaging her hands slightly.

Before he could say or do anything she saw someone moving inside the theater lobby. "Wait – Hey, Evan!" She ran over to the windows again and banged on a doorframe, calling, "Evan! Let us in!"

Her co-musician noticed the noise and approached the other side of the windows. "Please, it's cold out here," Divya continued.

He eyed her, then Kai, and pushed the door open. "What's up?"

"I have to call my ride. You wouldn't want to make us wait out in the freezing cold and snow, would you?"

"Ok, ok, come in and you're welcome," he said, mouth quirked into a smile as he gestured invitingly toward the darkened interior of the building.

"Kai, we're set. Thank you," she said dramatically to the other man. Kai followed slowly as she grabbed her instrument and led him inside. Evan closed the door behind them, checking that it was still locked.

As Divya shook snow off her coat and out of her hair, violin case propped against a wall, he asked, "The kid's not yours…?"

"No," she replied. "A friend and I are taking care of him, for the moment. Excuse me."

"Oh," he answered uncertainly, watching her call the boy's attention_. Taking care of him?_ _Well, good for her, I guess. Now where is that box…_

Divya glanced up briefly as Evan wandered away and returned to trying to figure out what was wrong with the boy she had just found again. He seemed more than exhausted. _It_ _**is **rather late. Maybe he just needs to go to bed. _Then she reached up to fix his hat and found his forehead was burning hot.

"Kai… are you ok?" she asked, taking off the hat to press her cool fingers against his damp skin. He didn't answer, but his lower lip trembled meaningfully.

_Oh no… poor kid. _Impulsively she drew him into a hug, holding him gently so he could break away if he wanted to. After a moment he buried his face in her coat as his arms closed around her waist. They stood for a while, Kai motionless, Divya stroking his back soothingly while her agitated mind tracked from Preston to Kai to Jace. Finally she moved, digging into her pocket for her phone.

"I'm going to call Jace, ok? Then we can go home."

Kai nodded slightly, grip tightening. She stepped back a half-step as he leaned drowsily against her, keeping one arm around him to support his slight weight. _Maybe we should let Agatha take care of him. She certainly would make sure he eats enough or more; I doubt a few more pounds would be bad for him. I'll talk to Jace…_

As her friend's voice, sounding shaken, came on the other side of the line, she smiled and started happily, "Hi, Jace? I found him…"

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Jace tramped down the street, barely noticing where he was going, irritated with himself. Images of Divya caught in the arms of that blond stranger while he froze up were plaguing his mind, driving him crazy.

_Who was he? No idea. Does she like him?_ _I don't think so, but…_

He ran his hands distractedly through his hair. _Ok, ok, ok, relax. She's fine. She handled it. Um… find Kai._

He glanced around the mostly-deserted area. Cars trickled by, slower than usual due to the heavy snowfall. Fading footprints led all directions. Of the few people in sight, none were the skinny eleven-year-old. The farther from the theater he went, the less likely he thought it was that they would find the boy.

Another block, and he was convinced: there was no way they would find him out here. He just hoped Divya would have more luck.

And as if on cue, his phone rang.

He pulled it out of his pocket as relief swept over him. Divya must have found Kai. Raising the cell to his ear he eagerly said hello.

"Where are you?"

Surprised by the weepy voice, which was Shelby's instead of Divya's, he answered haltingly, "On… Congress Street."

"You're still in the city? Why aren't you here? My party started over an hour ago. Nearly everyone is here already."

"Umm…" Jace faltered. He couldn't admit that he had forgotten about her Christmas gala. "I, uh… I don't think I'm going to be able to make it."

"Why not?" she whined.

"It's snowing pretty hard, Shelby. All the roads are probably bad."

"But Jace…"

"I would come if I could. You know that."

There was silence for a moment; Jace could practically hear Shelby's pout. He sighed as she began expounding on the important people her mother had invited and how much it would benefit him to be there between complaints of not having seen him since the previous evening. _Here's one more problem to deal with. I'll have to go over there tomorrow and try to fix it._

As this plan formed in his mind the phone beeped. "Shelby?"

"What," she answered in a childishly petulant tone.

"I'm getting another call, could you wait a second?"

Her irritable huff struck Jace with a sudden resemblance to her dictatorial mother. Quickly switching calls he breathed a sigh of relief when Divya answered his greeting with the announcement that she had found the wayward street boy.

"He was about four blocks down the street; I was getting worried that we'd never find him. We came back to the theater and someone I know let us in. Want to bring the car here?"

"Yeah… yeah, ok. Sure, I'll be there in a few," he replied, turning in the direction of his parked car.

"Good. I don't think he's feeling well, so we should get him to bed as soon as possible."

"Ok, but the roads are going to be pretty bad with all this snow. Why don't we go back to my place? It's closer, and I've got space… if that will be alright with you."

Divya, who was beginning to have trouble supporting an increasingly limp and unresponsive Kai, said yes without a thought.

"Great. See you in a minute." Jace flipped the cell phone closed, grinning, Shelby's irritation forgotten.

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And the plot thickens… I guess it did anyway. Did it thicken? I just felt like saying that.

I have no idea whether there is a street called Congress in NYC; that was the first thing that popped into my head when I was writing it.

Please review!


	17. tonight not only in my dreams

Thank you Destiny Quill, shadow dragon beyfan, kris the ninja pirate, bladz-liska, I, kai's-sad-Bby, Nameless Little Girl, and Party in the Afterlife for your reviews!

"ICE" is now on a second c2: The Love of Anime!

This chapter should be called "all hell breaks loose", or maybe the next one. Well the next one will probably be more of a "calm before the storm." I don't really know yet. I named this chapter from lyrics of a song called "17" cuz I'm cheesy like that.

I really wanted to submit this earlier but I had homework so Happy Valentines Day!

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

……………………………………………ICE……………………………………………

………………………tonight not only in my dreams………………………

Windshield wipers squeaked on glass, flipping back and forth hypnotically. Tires crushed soft snow beneath the slow-moving car.

Jace took his eyes off the white landscape of the road to check his passengers in the rear-view mirror as Divya shifted her arm which was curled around the small boy whose blue-and-gray-haired head rested against her shoulder. She looked up and caught Jace's eye.

"What?" she asked quietly so not to disturb the sleeping child.

"Nothing." Green eyes snapped back to the road.

"Oh," was her faint response. His gaze returned to the young woman now staring out a side window.

"Umm, so… who was that guy?"

"I really don't know."

That surprised Jace. "But he acted like…"

"I met him earlier today, at work."

"Oh." Jace bit his lip uncertainly. "So, uh…"

"I have no interest in him."

Silence followed. Divya turned toward her friend, wistfully studying the lines of his profile. _I love you… say it. I can do this. I love –_

"He seemed to think otherwise."

Her confession cut off, Divya snapped her mouth shut. "I don't want to talk about it," she spat sourly, looking away out the window again.

"Ok, but I'm just saying –"

"Jace!"

Stung by the sharpness in her voice he let the awkward conversation die. She did not look at him; if she had she would have noticed the unsatisfied concern written across his wrinkled brow and down-turned lips. The faint sigh as he shook himself into mental strength was ignored, and they did not interact again until Jace had parked the car.

"I'll get him," he stated as he opened the back door, voice low but firm to cut off Divya's protests. Defeated, she lead the way to his front door, taking the keys from his coat pocket with as little physical contact between them as possible. Jace did not even seem to notice.

With feelings of abandonment and rejection assaulting her mind, exhausted tears threatened to shatter her composure.

"I'm going to put him in the extra bedroom. You sleep in my room, I'll sleep on the couch," Jace directed dispassionately as they entered his apartment.

"No, I'll stay on the floor, near him," she pleaded. "I don't need to take your bed."

"It's my house; you're a guest."

"I don't want to –"

"You have to."

"But…"

"Find something he can sleep in. Shorts, or whatever."

She started to argue but he turned his back to carry Kai into the guest room. All she could do was stare after him until he growled at her to hurry up.

_Why? Why is it like this? _she thought as she dug through a dresser drawer looking for sleep pants. _I didn't want anything Preston did or tried to do. Why is Jace so mad at me?_ She buried her face in a tee-shirt she had found, breathing unsteadily for a few moments as she tried to regain control of herself.

But Jace's chilly thanks as she handed over the garments a minute later broke her heart.

Jace heard the strange, choked sound that followed as she practically ran from the room but didn't know what to do. _Was she actually that upset? _He knew she was almost as worn-out as the boy but seemed to also be more troubled than he could understand.

Kai began turning restlessly, moaning, as Jace tried to tuck him in under the covers. "Shhh," the young man murmured, trying to comfort him. "Divya?" When there was no answer, he told Kai he would be right back in hopes that the boy could hear him and set off in the direction of his medicine cabinet.

Divya was in the bathroom; he stopped momentarily in the doorway to take in the pitiful scene. Her shoulders were shaking and her hair messy from frantic fingers run through it, her hands unsteady. She jumped at the noise of his boots on the tiles and knocked several plastic bottles from the shelf as she turned to face him. They hit the hard floor with a rattling clatter.

"I f-found them," she announced tremulously, holding up a thermometer and a pill bottle and smiling much too brightly for him to believe the expression was genuine.

_She really is upset._ _And it's my fault. _ "Divya…"

"Come on. Kai, he's – so sick." She gasped a short, sobbing breath between her words, raising a hand to her mouth, brows arched painfully high.

Jace attempted to reach out for her but she side-stepped his efforts, escaping into the extra bedroom. A tremulous command of "bring water" followed her retreating footsteps.

When Jace had fetched the water he found Divya kneeling on the floor next to Kai's bed, holding his hand and talking to him as she read his the thermometer. Both looked up at his entrance, Divya again smiling falsely. Kai's flushed face held no such artificial emotion, only worrisome blankness.

"That's quite a temperature, Kai. Sit up now. We have medicine that will make you feel better," Divya cooed in a motherly tone. Jace thought the effect was spoiled by the quivering in her voice, but she refused to let him say anything as she took the glass he was carrying.

Kai let her help him sit up, allowing her to cradle him in her arms, swallowing the offered medicine with a gulp of water. Divya helped him settle down into the pillows, then took a washcloth she had found in the bathroom and dipped it in the glass of water to lay across his hot forehead. Holding one of his hands, she caressed his hair until he was clearly asleep. Jace, who had been helplessly watching her mechanical motions, strode forward to catch her as her head nodded deeply in a motion of imminent asleep.

She looked blearily up at him, then to the boy. Jace sat down next to her on the bed, only able to see the back of her head as she continued to face Kai. It was several minutes before a whisper broke their silence.

"I forgot to thank him."

Relieved that she seemed to be recovering from her emotional spell, Jace asked, "Who?"

She gestured to the boy.

"Kai?"

A nod.

"For… what?"

A sob tore from her throat. "I didn't want him!" Confused, Jace moved closer, laying a hand on her shoulder. She pulled away, becoming hysterical. "He tried to hurt Kai. Kai just tried to help. He was going after me. I didn't know what he would do. I was so scared!" Finally she turned to him, an accusing look in her tear-filled eyes. "But you… why are you mad at me? I'm sorry! I never wanted him to do any of that. I don't even like him. It –" She hiccupped as Jace pulled her against his chest, rubbing her wet eyes.

"Shhh," he said apologetically. "I… I didn't mean to make you cry."

"You're a hypocrite."

"What?" He drew back to stare at her.

She choked, grieving, "You have Shelby and you're with her all the time, so I only get to see you when you give me a ride home." Her dark eyes found his widened green ones. "But then you get mad at me when some other guy tries to get near me, even if I'm not interested. I can't have what I want, because I love you!"

She gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth, eyes fearful. Shock kept Jace from finding his voice until Divya began pushing against his arms which held her trapped.

"…Divya?"

There was no answer, besides a slight intensifying of her struggle.

"Divya, look at me."

She shook her head, still fighting to get away. He moved his hands from around her back to her shoulders, and as she turned towards him, caught her face in his hands and pressed his lips against hers.

After several seconds without reciprocation, Jace let go. His hands dropped to release her and he looked up into her now wide-open eyes hopefully, wondering why she had not responded. _Didn't she just say…_

"Wh– … what was that?"

Jace frowned at the floor. "It's just… I think I love you, too."

The beginning of a vivid smile brightened her face, but he did not see it. He only heard her inquisitive "Do you?"

His frown deepened for a moment, then relaxed. "Yes, I do," he said decisively.

Now it was his turn to be surprised as she threw her arms around his neck. They met in a feverish kiss, melting into one another until she leaned so far toward him that he slipped and they both tumbled off the bed.

Giggling, she crawled up next to him and ran her hands over his face, pushing his hair away from his eyes. Propping himself up on one elbow he kissed her again and she happily echoed the touch. His arms closed around her back and he pulled her down on top of his chest, keeping their lips locked together. She grinned as his hand ran through her hair and pulled away a little to look at him.

Jace smiled up at her as his fingers continued to play gently with her long hair, emerald eyes half-lidded and peaceful. She caught his hand and caressingly kissed his fingers, and then leaned over to enjoy his lips again. When they broke apart she settled her head on his chest and they lay together quietly, his hands around her waist and in her hair, hers on his shoulders. Divya found it a pleasure just to listen to his heart beat steadily under her ear.

Eventually it occurred to her that he was lying flat on the floor, which had to be uncomfortable, and she picked her head up to look at him. "Want to both sleep in here? We can have a slumber party."

He chuckled. "No one ever sleeps at those."

Rolling her eyes innocently, she shrugged. He decided to humor her and followed as she jumped up and bounded out of the room.

"Would you like something more comfortable to wear?" he asked as she kicked off her shoes in the hallway.

"Yes, please," she responded cheerily. When he returned from his room she had taken all the cushions and pillows off his couch and arranged them on the floor in Kai's room. She nuzzled sleepily into the shirt he handed her, mumbling, "It smells like you."

"…I'm sorry?" he replied uncertainly.

Her dark eyes appeared out of the folds of fabric. "I like it."

"Okay."

"I'll just be a few," she declared, strolling toward the bathroom. Her hand ran down his arm affectionately as she added, "I'm stealing your toothbrush."

He watched her disappear around the corner and then knelt down to check on Kai. The boy was sleeping almost peacefully, a faint trace of discomfort noticeable in his expression. Jace removed the cloth from his forehead and ran a hand over the skin to check his temperature, which was still noticeably high. Sighing, Jace replaced the damp washcloth.

There wasn't much more he could do, other than stay up with him; Divya would keep him company until she fell asleep. The thought of her brought out another smile as he returned to his bedroom to take off his good clothes.

A spontaneous giggle disrupted the relative silence of the house a few minutes later. Jace, who had just been pulling a shirt over his head, turned to glimpse Divya disappearing from the open bedroom door. Reddening, he chased her into the extra bedroom only to find her kneeling next to Kai, whispering animatedly.

"Divya, what were you doing?"

"Nothing!"

He ran a hand over his face in exasperation but decided to forget it. Picking up a blanket from the pile of bedding on the floor, he sat down next to her to draped it over her shoulders and pull her into his arms.

She turned to look at him, eyes sleepy but bright. "I was just telling him this turned out to be a good Christmas… even though I don't really celebrate Christmas."

"Mmm," Jace agreed, leaning back against the bed frame. She snuggled against him, resting her head on his shoulder so she could see both him and Kai.

"I wonder why he was trying to run away again. Maybe he just lost us."

"Maybe…"

"He looked so sad when I found him."

Jace nodded, and she began thoughtfully tracing a finger across her blanket. Watching silently, he let his mind wander until she spoke again.

"I'm sorry for being angry."

"It's alright."

"No, I was stupid. What would have happened if you had left? I wouldn't have been able to get away from –"

She shivered, hiding her face in his shoulder, and his arms closed reassuringly around her as he murmured soothing words in her ear.

The energies of joy and fear used up, it was not long before she slipped into a deep sleep. Jace climbed to his feet and carried her into his room where he settled her tenderly on the bed, unfolding more blankets over her. She rolled into his pillows, sighing softly.

An affectionate smile gracing his lips, he bent down to place one more kiss on her forehead. As he retreated from the room, reaching to close the door, he turned back to look again at the woman he knew he loved.

"Merry Christmas."

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Divya is not supposed to be OOC, just sleep-deprived. Some people seem to get hyper when they're tired. --shakes head-- Christmas day is finally over in this story.

Haha, I don't take my romances seriously (they fell off the bed XD). Sorry if you couldn't tell before this chapter that they like each other – they did, just wouldn't admit it. I figure that if you care enough to worry about someone, you must have some feelings for them (not specifically love of course) but… yeah.

Please review!


	18. looking for someone to live for

Thank you Destiny Quill, Party in the Afterlife, bladz-liska, kris the ninja pirate, kai's-sad-Bby22, I, Nameless Little Girl, and n-zelda-n for your reviews!

I apologize for the long gap since the last chapter. The story definitely will come to its rightful ending, so don't worry about me never finishing it. To people who want to see more of Kai: I'm sorry if he seems scarce. I'm trying to keep the story balanced among the three main characters.

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

.………………………………………………ICE………………………………………………

………………………… looking for someone to live for…………………………

Darkness fell deeply, completely, quickly. Perhaps it had always been dark. It was difficult to remember.

The chill gathered quickly as well.

Kai watched the light fade with the failing of a dying soul. Someone was leaving him. It was someone important.

And he cried.

There was no comfort as the child sobbed for his dead mother. No one could have consoled him even if they had been there to try, so the three-year-old cried alone… until another being arrived for him.

At first, it was difficult to see anything human behind that man's dry, determined strength. As Kai became acquainted with him, it became nearly impossible. He was a mask, a pillar, and he turned Kai into the same. The boy became part of his game.

The tears dried up, but the sorrow of loss never healed.

Kai always could feel the hurt deep inside his chest. It could taper to a twinge, but fear and arduous work could fan it into a distracting, roaring flame.

Sometimes Kai wondered what it was that he actually missed. Was it peace, comfort? Family, or just someone to take an interest in him? Memories faded and grew dim with neglect, for he rarely had time to think about them. There was always training, some new threat or technique to learn, other bladers to defeat, though it was never enough. He was never complete….

Never happy.

This took a long time to realize. He was always surrounded by others just like himself, some of whom looked up to him for his skill at blading, others down on him for his young age and family connections. Very few of these other bladers seemed to care for anything outside the Abbey.

But there was one anomaly – a boy about his own age, one who arrived late. Kai was eight by then and silent as a little stone even when the youth tried to befriend him. After many failures he had moved on to try his luck with the others, but his friendly attitude stood out from the crowd too much. He wanted to be liked, whereas the Abbey bladers preferred to secretly envy and dislike each other in spirit of competition.

Kai happened upon him one day during free practice hours. It was an odd, quiet evening, with a fitful wind blowing across the mountains and through the summer grass where the boy sat alone, staring into the distance. Kai, who had wanted a few minutes of solitude before someone challenged him to a match, sighed and flopped down on the grass to gaze at the setting sun. After a few minutes, the new boy broke the silence.

His words spoke of home, of missed friends and family. He mentioned Mother and Father, and loneliness strengthened. Uncertainty and the feeling of isolation expanded until Kai was as lost as he. He understood now what he lacked, these things the boy had left behind, and his heart grieved in sympathy.

The boy disappeared.

Kai's heart ached, a forlorn sense of abandonment eating at him and creating darkness inside. The darkness grew, even after he knew it was there, even when he tried to make it stop. It was swallowing him.

Kai tried to escape, but the world around was melting away to leave him in this horrible darkness. Eventually he could no longer see, for everything was pitch black. He couldn't hear, couldn't move – something lay over him obstructing his movements. Crying for help, he suddenly realized he couldn't even find Dranzer. Dranzer had forsaken him. He was alone.

The bottom dropped out of under him, and he screamed.

……………………………………………………

"Kai! Come on, Kai, wake up…."

Jace muttered tirelessly, trying to rouse the boy without waking Divya. It was the fourth time that night he had gone into hysterics, and Jace couldn't help wondering what phantoms held so much terror for the boy.

Finally, still attempting to shush the restless dreamer, he pulled the blankets off the bed and picked Kai up. Kai quieted as in his nightmare the darkness lifted away and Dranzer caught him from his fall. He stopped fighting and went limp in Jace's arms.

Slightly startled by this abrupt change, the young man held him until he was sure the boy was sleeping peacefully again, then laid him back on the bed.

"How is he?" a sleepy voice asked from behind him.

Jace turned to see Divya in the doorway, drowsily rubbing a hand over her face. Her dark hair was amusingly disheveled and his clothes hung from her shoulders and hips, but what he saw was an incredibly beautiful woman whom he loved. He grinned as she padded over and cuddled against him, sharing a tender good-morning kiss.

"How are you?"

"I'm alright," she yawned. "Still kinda sleepy. Your bed's so comfy." Stretched a bit, she asked about Kai again.

"He still has a slight fever and he keeps having nightmares. Sorry to wake you."

"It's alright, time for me to get up anyway," she answered, gesturing to the window where rays of the rising sun were peaking in under the blinds. "Did you get any sleep?"

"A bit."

"How 'bout I take over for a while and you get some rest?"

"I'm ok," he replied, kissing her forehead.

"Baloney! Go sleep. I don't want you to get sick too."

He grinned. "Can we have a sleep-over in here?"

"No one ever sleeps at those," she giggled, repeating his words of the night before.

"Tell me about your co-workers again and I promise to fall asleep."

She smacked his shoulder half-heartedly, laughing. "Whatever works!"

They bickered pleasantly in whispers for a while but it was not long before Jace was laid out on the couch cushions on the floor, sound asleep. Divya sat comfortably next to him, alternating between playing with his hair and her own and tending Kai, occasionally refreshing the wet cloth on his forehead. Absolute silence reigned through the apartment except for the hushed sounds of breathing.

A few hours later Divya awoke, surprised to find herself on the floor with Jace's arm draped over her waist. She could hear his deep breaths near her ear – he was obviously still asleep. Wondering how long she had slept, she pushed herself up to look at the clock on the nightstand next to the bed… which was empty.

"Shoot!" she swore in a whisper, jumping up. _Where can he be? Please please please don't have run away on me…_

As the sound of running water met her ears she breathed a huge sigh of relief. Willing her heart to stop beating so frantically, she walked into the hallway to meet Kai outside the bathroom.

"Hey, Kai, how are you feeling?" she asked sympathetically, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder. He looked momentarily up at her through a messy fringe of gray hair, allowing her to hold him, and shook his head.

She ran a hand over his face, still flushed with heat, and pulled her arms around him. He leaned listlessly against her, permitting her to rub his back soothingly.

"Do you want to go back to bed?"

He shook his head again.

"I'm going to make coffee. Feel like eating anything?"

When he didn't respond at all to her question, she leaned over and wrapped her arms around his slim body to lift him off the floor. He didn't protest, only gripped her shirt and dropped his head to her shoulder in a defeated gesture. "You're really not feeling well, are you?" she said softly, remembering the defiant strength he had shown the morning before. _And he's so skinny, which is not a good thing._

She carried him into the big open area that was sectioned into dining room, living room and kitchen, looking for a good place to settle the boy. The couch was unfortunately still cushion-less as Jace was sleeping on them. She could bring him to the bar-like kitchen counter, which would be most convenient for watching him, but she wasn't sure he could support himself enough to stay up on one of the high chairs. The same consideration made her hesitant to settle him at the table, so she chose a big easy chair in a corner near the couch.

Kai curled up as she set him down, resting his head on the arm of the chair, red eyes half-open and distant.

Crouching next to him, she asked, "Can I get you anything?"

His voice was almost inaudible as he whispered "Dranzer."

"Um, ok," she responded, confused. _Dranzer? What was that? It does sound sort of familiar…_ Then she remembered last night, after he had knocked Preston out, Kai had said that word, and also the toy that had been on the table next to him at her apartment. _Ok, hopefully that's what he wants, but where is it?_

The only logical place to look was in his pockets, so she returned to the spare bedroom. Predictably Kai's coat and clothes were at the end of the bed where Jace had left them. _Nothing in the shirt or the jeans, he's wearing his tee-shirt…_

His coat pockets finally revealed the blue metal disk. Grabbing a blanket off the floor she inspected this "Dranzer" thing on her way back to Kai. It was an interesting little gadget, intricately built and decorated with a picture of some type of red bird on top.

Kai's hand curled comfortably around the requested blade as she handed it to him. Sighing, he tucked his arm close to his body. He seemed more relaxed with Dranzer in his grasp, she noticed as she settled the blanket over him. Eyes closed, he shifted to get comfortable, and she walked away to give him privacy.

Kai checked to make sure she had gone and settled deeper into the cushy chair. He didn't want to sleep anymore, but he felt so weak that there didn't seem to be much choice. His dreams had been disturbing and he didn't want them to return; even though he couldn't remember anything specific about them, apprehension lingered in the back of his mind and he knew they had featured that place he was running away from.

_Please leave me alone… I just want to live for myself now…_

"It sure snowed a lot last night," Divya noticed as she looked out the kitchen window while getting filling the coffee pot with water; when it was brewing she walked to the larger dining room area windows for a better look. The sun looked incredibly bright because of all the extra light reflecting off every building and inanimate object in sight. The apartment was high enough that she had a good view of the nearby area, and she watched with amusement as a plough drove by, trying to clear the street but mostly just managing to push snow over the sidewalk and parked cars.

Tired red eyes opened as a strange mechanical sound interrupted Kai's brooding; Divya had turned on the TV and was settling on the floor in front of the couch, flipping channels. He watched jumbled flashes of color change until she found what she was looking for and a weatherman's drone suffused into the room.

"How's it look?" Jace asked as he appeared around the corner. "Hey, Kai." He bent down and kissed Divya as she looked up to tell him that the snowfall was more than two feet.

"And I put on coffee," she said as he whistled in mild disbelief.

"Ah, good." He wandered off to the kitchen where the coffee machine was bubbling away. "Want breakfast?"

"Yeah sure," she answered, still staring at the snow report. "Look, it says they would have had to close schools if it wasn't the day after Christmas. The airport is all backed up."

"Again?"

"Yup."

"It's ten o'clock already?"

"Is it? Yeah, I guess so."

"Wow. So what would the lady and gentleman like to eat? I have cereal, eggs, juice, bread – we could make toast…"

"Anything sound good, Kai?" Divya asked, passing on the question of food. There was a slight twitch under the blanket which she assumed was a shrug. "I'm fine with anything."

"Ok, not helpful."

She laughed, and stood up. "We could eat dry cereal and watch something."

"Mmm. I should probably show up at work at some point today. I don't really have to be there but, you know…"

"Make sure the building is still there?" she joked. "I'm glad we weren't playing tonight, because originally… oh no! My violin!"

"What?"

"I left it at the theater!"

"Hey, it's ok, just relax," Jace soothed, as Divya started freaking out. "I'll get it while I'm out, ok?"

"But there might not be anyone there, and they might not give it to you –"

"If there's a problem I'll call you and you can tell them it's alright."

She was still wringing her hands in distress, so he took hold of her hands and made her look up at him. "I'll take care of it, ok? Don't worry."

She nodded slightly, and he wrapped her in a reassuring hug. "Come on, I'm starving. Let's eat."

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Ok, trying to keep the swearing to a minimum… baloney is something my family says, meaning the same as BS.

Please review!


	19. mistakes made and made again

Thank you kris the ninja pirate, Destiny Quill, Party in the Afterlife, n-zelda-n, kai's-sad-Bby22, bladz-liska, and Nameless Little Girl for your reviews!

So much for calm, here comes the storm!

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

.………………………………………………ICE………………………………………………

………………………… mistakes made and made again …………………………

By early afternoon most of the snow that had fallen the night before was no longer white or fluffy as the residents of New York City had trampled it into a muddy, slushy mess. Snow that had stuck on the sides of buildings or landed on roofs was melting in the bright sun and dripping to the ground below.

Inside Jace's apartment, two sets of eyes watched large drops of water and occasional clumps of snow and ice falling beyond the dining room windows. The television was on but the volume was so low that the inhabitants of the apartment were ignoring it completely in preference for the simple, hypnotic rhythm of drips outside, mirroring it in their own movements.

The cushions were back on the couch and Divya was sitting at one end while Kai lay with his head on a pillow in her lap. She was caressing his hair, gently pulling it straight only to have it bend back into its preferred wild pattern. Even though she had given up hope of smoothing the spikes, she continued because he found it soothing. He was still not feeling well so she was happy to do anything to make him more comfortable.

"Kosha," she said.

Kai shook his head for at least the tenth time. "Koshka," he murmured, correcting her pronunciation. She had expressed an interest in Russian and he was trying to teach her a few simple words. _It's all I seem able to do to repay her, _he reflected, listening to her mispronounce "cat" again, though less blatantly this time.

"Are you a little koshka too?" she asked playfully, ruffling his bangs as she glanced down at him.

He shook his head. "I am kot, you are koshka."

"What's Jace?"

"Sabaka."

"What does that mean?"

Kai shifted slightly, closing his eyes. "He is like a puppy."

Divya watched a particularly large avalanche of snow fall from the roof, deciding that the boy was a very shrewd judge of character. His temperament was definitely more similar to hers than Jace's, which seemed to be why he had said they would both be cats while Jace was more like a dog. She wondered what Jace would think of that assessment and grinned in amusement.

Kai reached across to the coffee table in front of them and picked up an apple slice from a dish of finger food left over from lunch.

"Jabloko, niet?" she asked, checking her memory. He nodded as he took a bite of the semi-sweet piece of fruit, but she didn't continue. A knock had sounded at the front door.

_Could that be Jace? Maybe his hands are full and he can't open the door…_ "I'm going to answer the door, ok?" she said out loud, helping Kai move off her legs so she could stand up. He lay back passively as she walked away, adjusting a little so he could hear her.

"Hey, I wondered when you'd get back –" Divya started as she pulled open the door. But it wasn't Jace outside. Instead, it was one of the last people she wanted to see.

"Shelby?"

The blond woman stared at her, scandalized. Divya realized too late that since she hadn't wanted to put back on her relatively uncomfortable concert dress, her only available clothes, she was wearing one of Jace's shirts and an oversized pair of his sweat pants. That couldn't look good to his former girlfriend, who had no idea he had declared love to Divya the previous evening and therefore must no longer be dating her.

"What do you want?" Divya asked rather rudely, crossing her arms over her chest. Shelby had been gaping dumbstruck at her for long enough to get on her nerves, thought she had nothing to say to the intruder either.

"Where is he?" Shelby demanded just as rudely, trying to push past Divya into the apartment.

"He's not here," Divya replied, blocking the door.

"How do I know that? What if you're lying?"

"He's not here," Divya repeated coldly, looking down on the smaller woman, who seemed to puff up with anger.

"Is this why he would not come to me last night? To spend the night –" she spat "– with **you**?"

Divya pretended to consider. "Well, let's see. Last night there was a major snowstorm which shut down half the city, in case you didn't notice, and driving was treacherous even over short distances. So if you really wanted to kill him he might have come, but yes, he had more important things to take care of than you and your cotillion of overstuffed society buffs who have more money than they know what to do with."

"And what, pray tell, was so important that he could not attend the biggest party of the year with a guest list including the people who could provide all the connections a man could need to be successful for the rest of his life with **his** **girlfriend**!"

Shelby was fuming now, a comical sight. Suppressing her urge to laugh, Divya answered mildly, "That is private."

Shelby gasped, and Divya was about to suggest that she leave when she realized the irate blond was looking at something behind her and glanced back. Kai had come to investigate all the noise and stood a few feet behind her, staring from one woman to the other, trying to follow their conversation. "Kai, please go – "

"So this is what is going on! I didn't think you had known Jason for that long," Shelby said venomously.

Wrong-footed by this interpretation, Divya turned back, breathing, "What…?"

"I should have known," Shelby sniffed, adopting a tragic theatrical stance. "I've heard about you, but I did not know you would stoop so low as to force a man to take care of some bastard kid that is not even his own because you can't remember the father…"

Dumbstruck, Divya dropped her arms. Shelby took the opportunity to barge through the door, yelling, "Jace! Jason, come out here right now!" Divya snapped back into it enough to grab hold of her and started pulling her back through the door. The other woman went crazy, screaming and thrashing, hurling every insult she could think of at her opponent along with an array of physical attacks.

Kai, who had been watching all this madness and understood the anger behind it, jumped forward to help. Divya didn't see him because she was behind Shelby trying to pull her out the door, so when Shelby's screams redirected at someone else she did not notice at first. It was not until she glanced back to check her progress that she noticed Shelby had Kai by the shoulders and was shaking him.

Rage like nothing she had ever felt before burned through Divya. With one violent jerk she wrenched Shelby off Kai and threw her to the ground in the hallway, screaming for the other woman to leave and never let her catch sight of her stupid blond head anywhere near Kai or Jace or anyone else ever again. She slammed the door after her, kicking it in fury, and then turned to find Kai.

The boy was on the floor on his hands and knees, shaking visibly. Divya dropped to her knees next to him, putting an arm over him and trying to make sure he was alright. "I'm so, so sorry," she apologized anxiously, terrified that he was hurt.

Kai shook his head slightly, trying to clear it, then began crawling awkwardly forward. Divya was completely confused by this and started wondering if he was trying to get away from her until he reached out and grabbed hold of his small blue blade, which he had dropped when Shelby grabbed him. Cradling it against his chest, he sat up and leaned against the back of the couch. Dranzer was in quite as bad a temper as Divya.

– _why did you drop me? I was going to kill her… – _

_Dranzer, it's alright. I'm fine._

Kai suppressed his bitbeast's wish to engulf him in protective flames, knowing Divya would not understand and would probably be frightened by the display. A hand settled on his shoulder and he opened his eyes to find Divya looking at him with concern deeply marked on her face.

Those crimson eyes were burning again, she saw as they were revealed to her. Still afraid that Shelby had managed to do some real damage, she asked softly, "Are you ok?"

He looked straight into her dark eyes and nodded.

Guiltily feeling that she should have handled the situation with Shelby better, Divya sat down next to Kai and ran a hand over her face.

Noticing that Divya was trembling and guessing it had to do with worry over him, Kai slid a little closer and hugged her. If it was worry about him, than she cared more than anyone he could remember, which surprised him even in light of all the things she and Jace had done for him over the past two days.

Divya returned the hug and they sat still as they both calmed down, listening to the dim drone of the television and the muffled noise of traffic and city life outside the small apartment sanctuary.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

In case you want to know, I found some new English/Russian that actually use this alphabet. I don't know how precise they are but it's a start. Anyway: ftp dot vpcit dot ru / cgi-bin / dict / bobo / word and www dot geocities dot com / agrafenaschildren / words dot htm. Convert "dot" to "." and remove spaces if you want to check them out.

Please review!


	20. just to know you’re alive

Thank you Destiny Quill, Party in the Afterlife, I, n-zelda-n, Kai Hiwatari1, kai's-sad-Bby22, bladz-liska, d1bontemp, kai fan girl 14, and Nameless Little Girl for your reviews! This was my first chapter to break double didgets with 10 reviews!

About that storm, I think we're in the eye now. There will be more to come soon enough, but we have peace for the moment. I will try to finish the story as soon as possible… hopefully before final exams (crosses fingers). Hopefully this is long enough to entertain you for a little while.

Is anyone else having trouble with their fanfic alerts? I haven't gotten any emails from this site in about a week. To my reviewers, if you don't get your replies, sorry.

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

.………………………………………………ICE………………………………………………

…………………………just to know you're alive…………………………

It was only seconds after Jace walked through the door that evening before Divya had her arms around him.

Jace blinked, smiling as he remembered all that had gone between them over the last twenty-four hours, then wondering whether anything was wrong. Divya was speaking into his shoulder but the words were muffled by his jacket so he could not understand them.

"Divya, what…?"

She picked up her head to look him in the eye and shrugged. "Just, it's nice to have you back."

"Oh, ok then," he responded, ignoring the fact that this was only a summary of whatever she had actually said. Instead he drew one hand behind her and kissed her soundly on the lips.

When they had broken apart, he reached back into the hall to reveal her violin.

"You got it! Thank goodness. Did they give you any trouble?"

"No," he responded, stepping inside and shutting the door to the hallway. "Some guy there knew you and had apparently heard of me so he understood the story and let me take it. But you have to call the theater and prove that I did deliver it and didn't sell it illegally or something on the way home."

Divya grinned at the story, settling the instrument case on the dining room table so she could check on her violin. "That must have been Leo then. He's a goof, but he's one for names. I probably have mentioned you from time to time."

"Well, good thing I guess," he concluded as he hung his jacket in the closet by the door. "How's Kai doing?"

"Oh, he's definitely a lot better. He's around here somewhere; I think he's playing with Dranzer in the other room. There was a whole obstacle course of your stuff set up on the floor when I checked to ask what he likes on pasta."

"Where did you order from?" he asked casually, already on his way toward the bedrooms.

"I'm making it myself."

"Wait, you're making dinner?" Jace turned around, looking at her incredulously.

"Yeah, so?"

"You're cooking?!"

"Don't sound so surprised," Divya chided, sounding a little embarrassed. "I can cook, I just choose not to most of the time."

"Uh-huh," Jace grinned, and she pouted out her lower lip petulantly.

"You don't need to have any," she started to say, but he continued, amused.

"I couldn't let our little guest suffer alone."

"Speaking of suffering… we had an unexpected visit–"

She stopped abruptly when a crash rang from the extra bedroom, and both sprinted in to check what had happened. Kai was kneeling next to a raised circle of books, digging through pile of objects that had been knocked over including a rather large lamp responsible for most of the noise. He pulled his beyblade out of the mess just as they arrived and looked up at them with an expression of complete terror.

"Kai are you ok?" Divya demanded immediately, already on her knees in front of him and checking to make sure he had not hurt himself. There wasn't any blood that she could see.

He nodded and buried his face in her shoulder as she hugged him tightly, feeling him tremble. She laughed brokenly, her heart beating almost as fast as his.

"It's ok, Kai. You scared us, that's all."

"Yeah, that lamp was useless anyway," Jace joined in, inspecting the smashed pottery. "Made a lot of noise though, huh? Pretty impressive."

Kai's big red eyes appeared again and he nodded slightly to Jace. The man smiled.

"Well, let's clean this up before someone does hurt himself. Divya, you have other things to worry about, I think."

"Ah, my pasta!" she exclaimed, jumping up. The boys watched her run from the room, chuckling when she yelled a moment later, "It's still good!"

Turning back to the mess, Jace began fishing random objects out of the mess and tossing them onto the bed as he asked, "So what were you doing?"

"Beyblading," Kai answered quietly, mimicking Jace's actions.

"Mmm. Does that often involve breaking things?"

"Yes," the boy replied, even more quietly.

Jace laughed, and he turned red.

"Hey, it's ok. I don't really mind. But I think Agatha's right about it being best done outdoors. Want to go to Central Park tomorrow and try it out there? They have a big blading park."

Kai's eyes lit up as he realized what Jace was suggesting and he enthusiastically answered "Da!" Then, embarrassed again, he amended, "yes."

Jace ruffled the kid's hair affectionately, and they went back to sorting.

By the time Divya called them for dinner, they had moved all Kai's obstacles, picked up and vacuumed the floor to get rid of the shards of glass, and started sorting everything out. Kai had also demonstrated the use of his improvised battle ring built of piles of big travel books, which Jace couldn't help hoping he didn't do again as it seemed a great way to ruin them.

"How are things?" Divya asked as the two trooped into the dining area, Jace still with a somewhat skeptical look on his face about the detriment to his father's book collection. She raised her eyebrow at him questioningly, but he just shrugged and reported on their progress.

The pasta turned out to be very good, as Jace assured Divya repeatedly. After the fifth time she told him to stop, laughing with Kai when she interrupted his attempt to repeat himself by telling him he had sauce on his cheek. He nursed his wounded pride for a while by ignoring them for his chicken and salad, which backfired because the other two started using the Russian words Divya had learned in their conversation to bug him even more. They decided to take pity on him and tell him what the words meant, including how they thought he acted like a puppy.

After that it was almost impossible to eat because Jace kept popping up with dog impressions that left Divya giggling uncontrollably and Kai chuckling and occasionally snorting into his food. Jace started laughing at how ridiculous the other two were acting and eventually they were all left red and breathless with hilarity.

Finally Divya declared that was enough, and that it was time to calm down. Unwilling to give up his success Jace continued making occasional faces at Kai behind her back as they cleaned up, and the eleven-year-old even countered with a few of his own. This went on until Divya caught them, and told Kai to stop encouraging Jace.

"Aww, come on, we were having fun," whined Jace. She gave him an evil look and he grinned. "So what are we doing tonight?" he asked, changing the subject as he fingered a piece of her hair teasingly.

"I don't know. What do you want to do," Divya sighed, tired from the long day of worrying over Kai and perfectly aware by his tone that Jace already had something in mind.

"Let's play a game!"

"Ok," she answered unnecessarily, as he was already halfway to the closet. He pulled open the door and started naming possibilities.

"Hmm, we can't play chess, that's only a two person game. Checkers is the same. What about Monopoly?"

"Too long," decided Divya, sinking onto the couch.

"Uno?"

"Know how to play?" she directed at Kai, who had settled next to her. He shook his head. "That would be a no," she redirected to Jace.

"Yahtzee?"

"Nah."

"Parcheesi?"

She shrugged.

"Aaaaaand no answer, Parcheesi it is!"

He set the game box to the coffee table and opened it, Kai looking on in interest.

"Ever played before, Kai? No? Ok, it's really simple…"

Divya quietly watched Jace as he animatedly described the game to Kai, who was drinking it in. _I could live like this,_ she decided, glancing between the two people before her. They chose that moment to burst into laughter at some joke in Jace's explanation, and she smiled to herself, unnoticed.

"Hey, are you going to join us?"

She came out of a deep reverie of thought to find Jace waving a hand in front of her eyes. Kai was watching from his spot sitting cross-legged at her feet, a small smile gracing his childish face.

"Yeah… yes, I'm all set."

But she remained distracted through the game, even when Kai beat Jace soundly on his first attempt. She managed to come in second because the boys had been warring against each other the whole time and ignoring her, but it was not presence of mind that brought her this partial victory. The duration of the game was spent contemplating, worrying, wrestling with solutions to their odd situation. _How can we do this?_

She wasn't married to Jace; they had just barely become a couple. They couldn't adopt Kai together, and neither of them could take care of him alone, but she couldn't imagine sending him away.

_There has to be some logical way to make this work… _

But try as she might, she could not think of one.

Returning from seeing Kai into bed, Jace found Divya staring blankly at her reflection in a window, rubbing her arms as though she was cold. He wrapped his own arms around her, hoping to warm her and soothe her doubts.

"I told Kai we could go to Central Park tomorrow."

"I have to work."

"Ok, when?"

"In the morning."

"We can go when you get out. We'll come pick you up."

Her chin moved down and back up ever so slightly, accenting to the plan. He rested his head against hers, breathing against her hair. The stood still long enough for his thoughts to spiral far away from the here and now before Divya broke the silence of her own accord.

"Jace… what are we going to do?"

It took him a moment to realize she had spoken and consider her words. "What do you mean?"

"We can't keep this up forever, living day-to-day, sometimes in your apartment and sometimes in mine. We can't raise a kid like that. It wouldn't be fair to him. We have to make plans for the future, find a school for him, explain this whole thing to our families. We –"

"Divya," he said firmly, and she turned slightly to look at him. "Don't worry so much. Everything will turn out alright in the end. I promise."

She looked at their crossed arms and nodded slightly.

"Now, come to bed."

She was about to walk in that direction when he reached down and lifted her into his arms. Her initial shock abating, she lay her head against his shoulder and let him carry her into his bedroom, where he settled her on the large bed and pulled blankets over her.

"Stay with me," she breathed as he was about to walk back out the door, intent on spending the night on the floor again. He turned to look at her.

"Are you sure?"

She smiled sleepily and patted a pillow next to her. After checking that the bedroom doors were both open, in case of more nightmares bothering Kai, Jace climbed into the bed next to Divya. Her smile widened a bit, then she closed her eyes and began breathing deeply.

"Did you start to say that someone visited earlier?" he questioned after a few minutes, suddenly remembering, but there was no answer. Divya was already asleep.

A fond grin tugging at his mouth, Jace reached over to kiss her goodnight, then lay back to wait for sleep.

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Please review!


	21. wonder where these dreams go

Thank you or-chan, n-zelda-n, d1bontemp,I, Destiny Quill, kai's-sad-Bby22, bladz-liska, Toyed With Like Marionettes, and Party in the Afterlife for your reviews!

Everyone join in a cheer that the emails are working again! Woot! Huzzah!

I hope this story doesn't seem like it's meandering, because I've been driving toward the next chapter for a while. And now for some Kai-ness…

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………………ICE………………………………………………

………………………………………by Destiny Kitty………………………………………

………………………… wonder where these dreams go…………………………

Divya, exhausted by the day, slept soundly through the night. Beside her Jace woke occasionally to check that the apartment was silent and still before dropping back into a deep sleep. And Kai dreamed.

They were not the terrifying dreams of the previous night and many others, overwhelming him with fear and hurt that felt like memories except that he had no recollection of them. Tonight's dreams were sweet, wistful, and perhaps almost nostalgic, something he definitely was not used to.

He woke with tears in his eyes and longing in his heart.

– … _are you alright, Kai? … –_

_Yeah, I'm fine,_ the boy answered, wiping his eyes. He fingered the blade thoughtfully as he tried to figure out what had awoken him. Dranzer helpfully provided the information.

– … _you dreamed of your mother…_ –

Kai stared off across the room, pondering the information. His mother… she was yet another part of his life that did not exist in his memory. He wondered if he had been happy with her, if she had loved him, what had happened to her.

– … _the dream was pleasant…_ –

Kai knew Dranzer was right. He was not being plagued by any of the ill feelings that usually followed his dreams. _So what does that mean?_ he sighed wearily.

Dranzer gave him a mental nudge.

– … _perhaps the part of you that does remember her knows…_ –

_But I can't find her in my mind, anywhere._

– … _that does not mean she is not there…_ –

Fidgeting with the edge of his blanket, he tried to remember. It was like grasping at something just beyond his reach, something he could feel but not see. Frustration swept over him.

_It's no use! I just can't._

He could sense Dranzer's disappointment, but the blade spirit only wrapped a ribbon of heat around him comfortingly. Kai asked, tremblingly, _Why did I think of her tonight?_

– … _you must have been reminded of her in the day…_ –

He considered. Divya had stayed with him all day, held him, took care of him, saved him from that angry stranger. Those were motherly actions, he supposed.

Dranzer agreed.

_So she reminded me of my mother, even though I can't remember her?_

– … _it would seem to be so…_ –

Kai sat back against the headboard, gazing out the window. Lights twinkled in the early morning darkness, resembling the stars that were not visible from the city.

…_What does she think of me?_

– … _I sensed much concern from her throughout the day…_ –

_So was she worried about me? _

– … _it is certainly possibly…_ –

Kai thought for a few minutes, staring out the window again. Finally he asked, in a childish manner that revealed his longing, _Dranzer… we can't stay here, can we?_

– … _Kai, that decision does not rest with me…_ –

The boy curled his legs up to his chest and his arms around them, resting his chin on top to think. He was happy here. This place felt safe, and both Divya and Jace seemed willing to accept him into their lives and take care of him.

Yet something still nagged at the back of his mind, a need to run, a fear of being caught. He did not know what provoked these unsettling feelings. Even as Divya had gently cared for him, occasional twinges of terror had quickened his heart and heightened his guard. Surely that was not normal. He guessed that these bad feelings came from his previous experiences and had nothing to do with the couple in the next bedroom, but still it bothered him. Those two were content together. Did he have a right to remain if he was not satisfied as well?

_Maybe I don't deserve happiness. Maybe I do not belong._

_But I do want to stay._

Miserably caught between these conflicting feelings, he rolled over onto his side and tightened his grip on Dranzer, squeezing his eyes shut as distress choked his heart. A soft whimper escaped his lips.

_Dranzer, what are we going to do?_

Suddenly he heard a noise and went still, relaxing into the pillow of his borrowed bed to feint sleep. Footsteps entered the room, approaching him. Hands tugged the blanket over his shoulder and smoothed it out. Fingers brushed his gray bangs away from his eyes.

"Sleep well, little one," murmured Jace, straightening and retreating back out of the room.

Red eyes opened to watch the man's back disappear through the door and down the hallway, surprised at the unexpected reassurance.

"I suppose we could stay for a while," Kai whispered.

– …_I will be wherever you are…_ –

_Ok… thanks…_

Dranzer sent another soothing tendril of warmth around Kai, feeling the boy become calm as his mind drifted away and sleep claimed him. The blade spirit stayed alert to the boy's thoughts, waiting for dreams to return as the night deepened and faded into morning light.

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Please review!


	22. don’t look back, now you’re alone

Thank you I, n-zelda-n, Party in the Afterlife, or-chan, kai's-sad-Bby22, kavbj, Destiny Quill, d1bontemp, Nameless Little Girl and bladz-liska for your reviews!

Disaster! Haha, don't worry too much. Longest chapter ever! I listened to The Corrs and wrote all day. I completed the next chapter (which **was** supposed to be part of this chapter) as well. I'll probably put it tomorrow, but I wouldn't want to completely deluge you with new story. This is the most intense part, after all –wink–

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………………ICE………………………………………………

………………………………………by Destiny Kitty………………………………………

…………………………don't look back, now you're alone…………………………

"How was work?"

"Ok," answered Divya, climbing into the front passenger seat of Jace's car. He shut the door behind her and walked around to the driver's side.

"Just ok?" he pressed as he sat next to her.

"Mm." Her reply was forced through lips pressed tightly together. Actually she was completely fed up with her co-workers because they had refused to drop the subject of the man they referred to as 'that handsome blond stranger', and she was sick of telling them that no, she was not interested in Preston, not a bit. They had all been very disappointed with this information, which she found even more exasperating. She had not told them about her and Jace finally admitting their feelings to each other because she decided they didn't deserve to hear the information if they were so convinced that she should be with that obnoxious pompous blond jerk.

"Alright," Jace said, accepting her short answer and moving on as he glanced backward to merge into traffic. "We had a good day so far."

Divya sighed, propping her elbow against the windowsill and leaning her chin on her hand as she continued brooding over her bad morning. After a moment she realized Jace was looking at her in a confused, disappointed way, and said quickly – "Oh… what did you guys do?"

The young man shrugged, returning his gaze to the front window. "Just now we went into my office for a bit, to check on things. This morning we made breakfast and watched some TV and Kai went blading in the hallway and scared the neighbors. He's really psyched to be going to Central."

"Good." Divya turned to look at Kai. He noticed her right away and smiled, displaying more enthusiasm than she had seen from him yet. Still, he was very contained for a young child.

"Excited?"

The boy nodded, clasping his hands more tightly together. She knew from experience that the little blue toy which he rarely put down was hidden in those small hands. Remembering the previous morning when he had sent her to find it, she sent a thankful thought to the higher power responsible for the boy's quick recovery from whatever illness had troubled him Christmas night.

"I talked to my brother, and he and his wife are thinking about going to the ball drop in Times Square for New Year's. They already have a babysitter set up, and he suggested that we come along. What do you think?"

Divya returned her attention to Jace, considering the question, and they spent the rest of the ride discussing logistics of their schedules. Kai listened from the backseat but did not actually hear most of what they said because he was too interested in their destination to worry about some party the couple might go to in a few nights. By the time Jace parked and they were walking toward the park he was bursting in anticipation of having his first beybattle in far too long.

The large block of trees ahead of them as they turned a corner and came upon their destination was a surprise to the boy. He knew what a park was, but the sudden change from buildings to nature as they crossed the street and entered the Park was strange.

The two adults watched with amusement as Kai's wide red eyes darted back and forth, taking in the area they had just entered. Jace smiled at Divya and took her hand, and she took Kai's, and the three of them strolled down a wide path populated with many other city-dwellers come to enjoy vacation and snow and mid-afternoon sun with their families and friends.

"The zoo is over there," indicated Jace, pointing to their right, "and there's the skating rink." Six eyes flicked over to the large pond, populated by skaters and sliders in boots and children leaning on crates to keep their balance. "We should come back here later," he concluded, knowing that Divya enjoyed skating. They kept walking.

There were people everywhere, Kai couldn't help noticing over and over again. Occasional horse-drawn carriages followed the roads beside runners dressed in funny tight clothing. The walkways were packed. To one side of the path a large group of teenagers were carving snow forts into drifts and throwing snowballs at each other. Divya laughed and nudged Jace as they passed, watching as one of the boys was tackled into a bank by a couple of his friends and came up flinging fluffy white powder everywhere. Jace grinned and grabbed a handful of snow to toss over her head so it fell around her and Kai. Kai stopped short, startled, but Divya shrieked and went after Jace, pushing him into the snow bank at the side of the path. Catching her wrist he pulled her down with him as he fell. She yelped and giggled as she fell on top of him. As he reached up to kiss her she quieted, sighing softly.

"Get a room!" someone walking past called, and they broke apart. Divya climbed to her feet and returned to Kai's side, smiling, with rosy cheeks that could have been attributed to the cold if not for the look she had just shared with Jace. The grinning young man joined them a moment later and crouched down in front of Kai. "Want a ride?"

The boy looked uncertainly to Divya but she nodded reassuringly, so he took a step forward only to suddenly find himself six feet off the ground as Jace sat him on top of his shoulders and stood up. Kai grabbed hold of Jace's fluffy brown hair instinctively, afraid that he might fall. "Just don't pull it all out," Jace joked, getting a comfortably firm grip on his rider's ankles. After a minute Kai began to relax and enjoy his seat. It provided a great view of the park and the people in it, and he happily took in everything around them as Divya and Jace meandered farther down the path.

Because he was now above the heads of the crowd, Kai was the first to catch sight of the beyblading area downhill from the path they were following. Jace felt the grip on his hair tighten as the surrounding noise level increased and knew Kai had spotted their destination. He looked to Divya with a smile and they turned onto a path leading in that direction.

The beyblading area was in a huge bowl-shaped depression which kept the large amount of noise generated there from disturbing the surrounding areas of the Park. Dozens of small circular arenas were spaced out on the ground, surrounded by many people. Cheers and yells filled the air, encouragement and criticism, frustration and joy over the outcomes of different matches. Quieter family members were dispersed among the battling bladers and enthusiastic fans responsible for most of the noise.

Jace lifted Kai from his shoulders as the boy was almost shaking with excitement. Kai didn't know where to look first. This was the first time he had seen something like this, a large unofficial gathering of bladers, out-of-doors, battling just for the fun of it. His eyes darted from ring to ring, checking out the action, trying to decide who to watch. He stepped forward indecisively, still searching, and found himself face-to-face with a boy about his size.

"Hey, do you blade?" the stranger asked, eyes searching out Kai's from under dark blond bangs flipped surfer-style over his forehead.

Kai nodded.

"Alright! Let's battle!"

Kai glanced back at Divya and Jace, then followed the enthusiastic kid.

It turned out that they had to wait for a battle to finish before they could claim a dish. Kai took the time to scope out the people battling nearby. Most were somewhere between the ages of ten and twenty, but a few smaller children and a number of adults were engaged in the sport as well.

Divya and Jace settled on a nearby park bench, exchanging occasional words but mostly, as far as Kai could tell, taking the time to lean against one another and hold hands. Divya smiled at him whenever she caught him looking but mostly her eyes were only on Jace. After a while they began exchanging occasional kisses as well.

"Are those your parents?" asked the kid who had challenged Kai to a battle. Kai looked back from watching the pair and shook his head.

"Oh, your sister or something, right? My mom dropped me off; she's around somewhere. She probably went over to the pond or something. She likes it over there; says it's artistically pleasing or something. Anyway, she likes to paint pictures of it."

Kai nodded, taking his gaze from the closest beybattle to glance at the boy beside him. He was toeing the ground with one boot, hands deep in his pockets. Already shorter than Kai, when he looked down Kai could see straight over his head. In that direction a teenage girl had just jumped a tall boy, yelling happily about him winning and hugging him. Since Divya and Jace were preoccupied, this boy was all he had for company, and Kai couldn't quite understand why he was unhappy. _Was something wrong with his mother? What would Divya do?_

"How long –" he started haltingly, trying to smooth his words so they didn't sound odd – "have you been beyblading?"

"Three years," the blond boy mumbled. "My older brother gave me a blade for Christmas that year, then taught me to use it." He looked back at Kai. "Do you have any brothers?"

Kai shook his head.

"Oh," the other replied. "Well, you're lucky I guess. They can be a real pain. But I suppose if I didn't have a brother, I wouldn't have started blading until I was older. When did you start?"

_Oops. Should have known that question would come back._ Kai searched for a distraction, but was unable to think of one. _Great, this is going to sound even weirder._ "I… don't remember."

"Oh, so a long time then. Are you good?"

The other boy sounded less depressed now, and Kai was saved the need to answer when an outbreak of cheering by the people around them signaled the end of the match in the ring they were waiting for.

"Come on, let's go!" the boy called, jumping forward to claim the ring before anyone else could. Kai was across from him in a moment, setting up Dranzer's launcher.

"Let it rip!"

From the sidelines, Divya searched out Kai. "Look, he's up," she told Jace, who was holding her and resting his head against hers. He moves slightly at her words, turning in the direction of the indicated beybattle.

"Do you want to go over there and watch?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think we should. You don't think it'll make him nervous or anything?"

"I'm sure he'll be fine."

They got up, brushing stray snowflakes from their clothing. Jace found a bunch on Divya's head, or so he claimed, since she suspected that he just wanted an excuse to steal her hat and play with her hair. She was about to tell him off but he caught her and kissed her before she could say anything.

"I just don't know what to think of this mothering thing," Divya confessed a minute later as the couple threaded through the crowd toward Kai's battle.

"I'm sure it will come with time," reassured Jace.

"Yeah, but he's already half grown up. That cuts out a lot of practice time."

"Don't worry. Things will work out the way they have to. Everything will be ok."

Divya nodded, then leaded her head against his shoulder. Jace smiled and wrapped his arm around her, and the two turned their attention to the present.

It was amusing to see the little blue toy that Kai always seemed to be holding close engaged in battle with another kid's toy. The blond boy was a passable blader, but he was still a beginner and Kai clearly had the upper hand in this battle. Dranzer's strength and speed were too much for the boy's basic skills and the match was over much more quickly than anyone expected. Even Kai was disappointed.

"I guess you are good," his opponent said, in a slightly accusatory tone. Kai dropped his gaze, silently calling Dranzer back to his hand as the boy picked up his fallen blade.

"Is he good?" a newcomer asked. The blond boy nodded, and the new one faced Kai. "Battle me!"

Kai nodded his agreement, and a new battle started.

One after another blader approached the ring as Kai beat each in turn. Each challenger was older and cockier than the last, but the small eleven-year-old continued to prevail, although the battles were getting longer.

By Kai's fourth match, Divya was starting to get cold just standing in the cold, despite jumping and cheering for Kai. Feeling her shivering, Jace offered to buy her coffee.

"I'll get it," she protested.

"No, stay and watch Kai. I'll be right back."

"Ok… but could you make it hot chocolate?"

He grinned. "Sure."

Divya watched him walk away into the crowd, and turned back to the little battle going on at her feet. Kai's blade had just smashed into the yellow one he was facing, sending it spinning across the dish. It reversed and crashed into Dranzer so the two disks were locked together for a moment. Dranzer lost ground, and a few onlookers cheered. Kai growled and Dranzer pushed the other blade off, chasing after it as it spun out and hitting it several times before it flew out of the dish.

His opponent, a tough-looking boy who must have been at least sixteen, swore. A good portion of the audience was cheering, having decided the small red-eyed boy was interesting to watch, while a few people booed or consoled the boy Kai had just beaten. He was not to be soothed, though.

"I want a rematch! I'm going to beat you!" he yelled, pointing at Kai.

Kai inclined his chin in a small motion of ascent and clipped Dranzer to his launcher. This boy had given him the longest battle yet, and if he wanted to try his strength against Kai's again, that was fine. They yelled and launched their blades against each other.

Their second battle lasted several minutes and had a number of close calls and exciting moves, enough that a large number of spectators were now gathered around the dish, pushing and calling and enjoying the prowess displayed. The amusement value of a small boy repeatedly beating the larger blader was also not lost on the audience.

The burly boy yelled for a while after his second defeat, which didn't phase Kai until the other started accusing him of cheating. Then Kai challenged him to a third round himself.

By the time Kai was battling one of the older boy's friends, having soundly and quickly beaten the sixteen-year-old for a third time, Divya started wondering where Jace was. It had been at least twenty minutes since he had gone for hot chocolate, more than long enough considering there were carts selling hot drinks around the edges of the battling area. _Could he have gone to a coffee shop to buy cocoa?_ It was certainly possible. Still uneasy, she turned back to the beybattle before her.

It was getting clusterphobic with the press of people around her. Kai certainly had drawn a lot of attention with his skill; even though she couldn't judge his prowess, she knew he was good by what people around her were saying. Not to mention the fact that he had now beaten four other bladers, one of them three times.

Still, she was getting very cold and cramped, unable to move much with so many people crowded around her. She started looking around, eyeing the hot drink carts. _Would Jace be very offended if I just bought some myself from here? Probably. _

She decided to just call him. Fighting her way back out of the crowd, she was highly relieved to finally reach an area where she could breathe and move. It was wonderful. She stretched, feeling sorry that she had to leave Kai in that mess of people. _At least he will be easy to find. Hopefully he won't get lost looking for us or try to run away again._

She dug into her bag for her cell phone, but was relieved of the need to look for it as she caught sight of a familiar brunette head nearby. _There he is! What has he been doing?_

She jogged in Jace's direction but stopped short as a few beyfans moved and she got a good look at him. And the person with him, curved against him, arms clasped around his neck, lips on his…

She was next to them before she knew she had moved, pulling the offending woman off Jace. Throwing her backward, she yelled, "Shelby, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Divya –" Jace choked.

"Get away from me, you witch!" screeched Shelby. "He's my boyfriend!"

"Not anymore!"

"What are you talking about? Jace is mine."

"He is not! I love him and he feels the same, don't you?"

Divya turned wide, pleading eyes toward Jace, but Shelby had hurled herself against him before he could answer. "Come on, Jacey-baby, just because you missed my party doesn't mean I want to break up with you. I'll forgive you, even for sleeping with her, if you promise to never see her again."

Still in an unexplained state of shock, Jace managed to say, "I didn't sleep with her."

"Oh thank goodness, then it is so much easier to forgive. I thought when I came to your apartment and she was wearing your clothes –"

"You were at my apartment?" he asked, sounding even more shocked.

"Yesterday, didn't she tell you? Oh, probably not, considering she attacked me and threw me out so I couldn't look for you –"

"She attacked Kai! She tried to strangle him!" Divya cried.

"If you care why did you hide it, witch?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked quietly. "I thought you would be honest with me."

Shelby took advantage of his downtrodden look to throw her arms around him and smirk evilly at her. Distracted by that look and the sudden upswing in noise from a nearby beybattle, Divya attempted to answer him.

"I did try to tell you, and **get off him**!"

Divya reached out to wrench Shelby off Jace again, but he moved the blond woman to his other side and caught her wrist. "Divya, what is going on? What happened?"

His emerald eyes were narrowed with hurt. Unable to look at them without feeling painfully that she had screwed everything up, Divya dropped her gaze to the ground. "She came looking for you, and I wouldn't let her in. Kai came over to investigate, and she insulted me and attacked him. And I threw her out."

"Is that all?"

Divya looked at Shelby, hatred coursing over her. "She called Kai my bastard son and accused me of forcing you take care of him."

"What are you talking about?" Shelby asked innocently, eyes widened with pretentious shock. "I would never say something so awful, you know that, Jace. She's trying to make you hate me." She buried her blond head in his arm, emitting loud and, in Divya's opinion, very fake-sounding sobs.

Jace was apparently convinced, though. He let go of Divya's arm to pat Shelby's back, trying to shush her. A crowd was gathering around them, pretending to be doing other things as they furtively watched the show-down.

Divya didn't care about the people around them. All that mattered was that Jace had his arms around Shelby and was comforting her about Divya's accusation, while he was supposed to be on her side now. Anyway, the story was **true**!

_She's lying, why can't you see that? Why are you so taken in by her?_ Divya could feel tears rising in her eyes and furiously swallowed them. _I am not going to cry over her, not in front of all these people!_

"Jace," she growled from between clenched teeth.

"Divya, I don't understand what is going on here. Why didn't you just tell me before?"

"I tried to, but there were all these interruptions and I forgot!"

"Sure, now she has all these excuses," Shelby slid in, loud enough that Divya could hear her.

"I did! There was Kai and your books, and dinner, and the game, and then I fell asleep, and this morning I was too happy and this afternoon too annoyed –"

Jace was staring at her, face a mask of confusion, while Shelby smirked and nuzzled against his chest. Seconds from tears, Divya snapped.

"Jace, what is wrong with you? She's playing you!"

"Divya…"

"Home-wrecker."

"Shut up, Shelby! I wish you would go back to Russia where you belong!"

"My family is from Sweden!"

"Whatever," Divya breathed. "I never want to see either of you again."

She turned on her heel, intent on storming away, but stopped. Kai was standing a few feet to the side, frozen, aguish-stricken.

"Kai? What's wrong?"

He didn't answer. He was running before she could take another step.

"Kai! Wait!"

Glancing in exasperation and heartbreak at Jace, Divya took off after him. She was impeded by the number of people who had gathered to watch her yell at Jace and Shelby. Fighting through the crowd, she yelled Kai's name again.

Reaching the edge of the immediate crowd, she realized she had lost sight of him already. Urgently looking around she saw his small form retreating at rapid speed down a side path toward the center of the Park. "Kai, please stop!" she yelled, tearing after him.

Kai didn't stop. In fact, he had the sudden urge to keep running until he hit an ocean and drowned or until the world ended. Either way it would stop his heart from beating.

His heart. He had sworn it had been empty, hard, broken, before he met Divya and Jace. Before they had saved him. Now, he was not so sure. It was throbbing and aching, making it difficult to breathe. Even though he never wanted to cry again, the temptation was so strong at the moment that he was afraid he might break down.

He kept running.

Eventually he couldn't hear Divya's voice anymore, but he kept going. He reached to the other end of the Park and kept running. He found it was soothing now. All he had to do was keep moving and the world would not catch up to him.

He ran among cars, between people, in front of a bus. Nothing touched him, not even fear, nor the words yelled after him. Ultimately he did meet water, thought it was only a river with lights twinkling on the other side against the newly-fallen night sky. He jumped down the stairs and stopped at the edge, staring at the murky, dark water.

Dranzer stirred, but only to pull a bit of heat around him. Reminded that he was not alone, and not feeling it would be fair to bring Dranzer's life to a close with his own, Kai pulled his beyblade from his pocket.

_I'm sorry, Dranzer._

He crouched to put the blade down on the dock, but now his blade spirit was fighting him. Crimson red flames completely engulfed his body and he felt himself pulled backward to sit on the ground.

– … _Kai! why are you giving up?…_ –

Kai curled his legs up to his chest and pulled himself into as tight a ball as he could, still biting back tears. _It's no use anymore. Why keep fighting?_

– … _because this is not the worst thing we have faced…_ –

The flames caressed his shoulders until he unintentionally relaxed. Tears took advantage of his weakness. Unable to stop the flow of salt water, he leaned against the wall along the abandoned dock and let the drops stream down his cheeks. Rocking slightly, he cradled Dranzer to his chest, weeping over the lost hopes that he had not realized had taken such a strong hold on him.

_She said she wanted me. She said we could stay. Why does she want us to go back to Russia? I thought we could… be happy… _

Dranzer listened and kept Kai warm until he was quiet. They sat still under the high wall facing the dark water. It was late so there was hardly any activity around the docks; noises of the surrounding city were dampened by low-lying clouds that hid the stars. Kai sighed, shakily after all those tears.

_What are we going to do?_

– … _whatever you want … – _

There was something nice about that thought. _Whatever I want…_

Dranzer accented. _– … all we need is the two of us … – _

_I know. _The ghost of a smile touched the boy's lips. _We'll survive._

Kai and Dranzer sat still and quiet for hours, watching the river with it's boat traffic, listening to the occasional passers-by, until a small group of rough-and-tumble boys had approached them.

"Hey kid, what are you dong here?"

"This is Blade Shark territory."

"Yeah. Battle us or leave."

Kai smirked, standing to meet his challengers.

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Please review!


	23. my dream, my love, is you

Thank you d1bontemp, Destiny Quill (!!), bladz-liska, isthatnecessary, kaibj, n-zelda-n, Taizen, or-chan, and Party in the Afterlife for your reviews!

Ok! So here's the rest of the last chapter, that turned into a chapter in it's own right. I didn't expect this to be so long… perhaps I'm rambling? Yell at me if you wish, but there really is only one chapter left after this. Enjoy!

Oh, if anyone remembers the family Kai saw from the window of the abandoned building in the first chapter, they reappear in this chapter.

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………………ICE………………………………………………

………………………………………by Destiny Kitty………………………………………

…………………………my dream, my love, is you…………………………

Jace was in a mess, probably the worst he had ever gotten into in his life. He couldn't believe Shelby had tracked his car to the park, couldn't believe Divya had shown up right when Shelby had jumped him, couldn't believe how much the women hated one another…well, maybe. But he couldn't believe that both of them were lying to him and that Kai had run away again. And he could not believe that this was the end.

Shelby would certainly never speak to him again. In some fancy restaurant she had dragged him to, in front of all it's patrons, he had finally managed to tell her that he was not in love with her and had no intention of marrying her, since he knew that was what she expected of him, and that he could not continue seeing her. As a final straw, he had to tell her that he truly did love Divya.

The restaurant itself was another addition to his list of disasters for the day. Considering the amount of crystal Shelby had broken while screaming and crying at him, he would not blame them for never letting him in again. He had walked out in the middle of Shelby's fit, so he was not sure if they knew who he was or not, but still.

Kai was probably gone for good. Recalling the look on the boy's face when he found the three adults fighting made Jace want to beat his head against a brick wall. He had been too preoccupied with trying to keep Shelby from making a complete spectacle of herself to warn Divya of Kai's presence. The eleven-year-old had clearly not understood most of what he heard, but it was sad to watch the happiness and pride in drain out of the small face as the boy watched Divya rage. Then after she screamed at Shelby to go back to Russia, Kai had turned white and bolted just as Divya turned and finally noticed him.

With Shelby a weeping mess on his arm, Jace had been unable to follow Divya as she chased after Kai. There was a possibility that she had caught him, but he didn't know yet.

Divya had not answered either of her phones all night.

_Divya…_

The biggest failure of the day was how he had treated her. Just thinking about her made him wish he had never gotten up this morning. He should have known she was timid around his relationship with Shelby. She had not voiced her feelings for him until two nights ago, even though they had been friends for longer than he had spent dating the blond woman. Even that confession had been accidental.

After finding him with Shelby, she probably thought that he had been lying. She had said she never wanted to see him again.

He groaned, kneading his knuckles into his forehead. If he could never see her again, never talk to her, never explain himself, he wasn't sure what he would do with himself. _Or __**to**__ myself…_

A car sped past, and he glanced up to watch the lights fade down the street. He was sitting on the steps of the abandoned building where they had found Kai, facing Divya's building. He had called to tell her that he was here, but once again neither her cell phone nor her apartment phone had been answered. Scuffing the dirty slush on the ground with his boot, which was slowly re-freezing in the nighttime chill, he thought over all the things that had happened and changed in the last three days._ I can't believe it has only been about seventy-two hours since we found Kai and this whole thing began. Crazy._

Nothing physically was different, but in his mind and heart, much had changed. He was sure it was the same for Divya. _Now if only I could get her to talk to me again…_

He had thought about calling other people for help or reassurance, but had not been able to bring himself to it. _I can't even admit how much I screwed up! How am I going to get her back?_

Despairing, he stood and paced up and down on the stairs between the abandoned building and Divya's, running his hands through his brown hair. The wild locks were probably starting to look like a bird's nest, he considered, and slammed his hands down to his sides. One hit his leg, and the other the metal rail along the stairs.

He clutched his arm, swearing, then sighed and flopped back down on the stairs. Elbows on his knees, he rested his forehead against his uninjured hand, feeling the other throb painfully. Grabbing a handful of snow, he held it against his hurt wrist.

Looking at the icy white mass melting over his reddened skin, he thought about the afternoon, before everything, when Kai and Divya and he had been together and happy. _How had that been lost so quickly? _

_I have to fix it._

Standing purposefully, he crossed the street and walked up to the door just as it was opened by a group of people. Several children tumbled out, laughing and calling their parents to hurry up. A girl of about Kai's height held the door for him, and he thanked her. As he was about to start up the stairs he heard –

"Hey, isn't that guy the one the upstairs girl likes?"

He whipped around to see the girl at the door shove her brother, while the mother glanced back at him, clearly afraid that he would overhear her son.

"Do you know Divya? Is she here?" he asked in a rush, hurrying back to the door and looking pleadingly at the woman.

"We don't know," her husband replied.

"Do you have any idea?" persisted Jace, looking to the children.

"Well she came back earlier and she was crying –"

"Briget, shush!" the woman reprimanded her daughter. The girl pouted.

"Please tell me," Jace appealed. "I need to … apologize."

The woman glanced at her husband and children. She was not much older than Divya, he noticed, as she said, "We didn't hear her go out, but there hasn't been any noise from her apartment either. She might be there or she might not."

"Oh…" Jace replied, disappointed. "Well, um… thank you anyway."

"Be nice!" piped up the smallest of the brood, only to be energetically shushed by her entire family. "But mommy, you always tell us…"

The front door swung shut, leaving Jace alone in the quiet stairwell. Slowly he turned and began climbing stairs to the third floor.

Facing Divya's door, with its block numbers "305" at his eye level, Jace felt his courage dissolve. _What if she won't let me apologize? What if she doesn't believe that I love her and not Shelby? Will she let me explain Shelby's visit was a surprise? _

But after he knocked and received no answer, and knocked again, another worry surfaced – _What if she is not there? How will I reach her…?_

He knocked and called to her through the door, tried the door handle, knocked again. Finally a door opened, but it was 306, the apartment next-door. A familiar grizzly gray head poked out to investigate all the noise.

"Miles! Have you seen Divya? I can't reach her on her phone and she won't answer the door –"

"She's not there, young man," Miles answered gruffly.

"Please, do you know where I can find her? I really need to talk to her."

"So I've heard."

"You… you have? But how?"

The man grumbled at him. "She is here with Agatha. Has been all evening."

"Can I come in?"

The old man eyed the younger one outside his door, eager and panicky with an anxious look in his eye and hair standing on end, and grumbled again. "I'll ask them."

The door shut in his face.

Jace stared at the forest green-painted door, waiting, every bit of his mind praying that Divya would let him come in. Right now he was ready to throw himself at her feet and beg for forgiveness. The seconds ticked by so slowly that he felt as if he was going crazy.

An eternity later, probably only a minute in real time, the door reopened. Instead of Miles, Jace now faced Agatha, and realized this was an infinitely more important face-off than the ones he had already met. Her happy, gracious smile was gone, replaced by a sharp look that pierced him as they met each other's eyes.

Realizing she was not going to speak, Jace started, "Please, can I come in?"

"Why should I let you enter, Jace?"

"Because," Jace said, gathering everything he had been thinking since he had gotten rid of Shelby, "because, I need her."

There was no answer, but she looked him over and then opened the door. "You have two minutes. Use them well." She turned down the hall and out of sight.

Uncertainly, Jace stepped inside, shutting the door and locking it. He had never been in the Elipidios's apartment before, but it was similar to Divya's. That meant that the den should be just down here…

Jace walked through a doorway and found himself inside a snug den. On a short couch to one side, Divya's lush red-streaked black hair was spread out over a quilt that she seemed to be hiding under.

"Divya?"

There was no response. Jace swallowed hard, wondering what to do. _She really is mad. _

"Divya, I came… to apologize…"

"Don't."

Her voice was muffled by the blanket but still audible.

"Uh, what?"

"I know what you want." There was a loud sniff before she continued, "and it's not me."

"No! Divya, please, I love you."

What sounded like a choked, strangled, entirely humorless laugh could be heard from under the blanket. "What happened, did little miss perfect dump you?"

"No, I… I dumped her."

Divya didn't answer, but her dark eyes appeared over the edge of the blanket, glittering. Jace realized she was still crying. She saw his expression and reached up to wipe her eyes, revealing a long scratch on her arm.

"What happened?" Jace asked immediately, moving to sit next to her and look closer at her arm. She pushed him away and hid her arm in the blanket, muttering, "I slipped."

"Divya…" he murmured disbelievingly, settling on the couch beside her. She pushed him away again but he put his arms around her, which just made her fight him more.

"Go away! I hate you and I never want to see you again!"

She looked at him just after yelling that, which was a mistake. The pain in those beautiful green eyes after she again declared her hatred almost made her immediately give in and take it back. This time Jace let her go, sitting stiffly beside her and staring at the floor. His hands clasped together tightly.

"I… I'm sorry about what happened, Divya. I didn't want to hurt you. I don't even know how she found me. I answered my cell, and then she came around the corner and ran at me, and then you came up and it was just… a huge mess. I – believe you, about what she said about Kai."

Divya winced when he mentioned Kai, but didn't say anything. He glanced at her but she was glaring at a potted plant across the room.

"You… didn't find him, did you?" he asked hopelessly.

She shook her head once.

"Oh…" He looked back at the floor. "Well, um… I really am sorry. I know it was all my fault. I'm sorry. I do love you, Divya. I'm… sorry, about everything." He stood up slowly, brushing off his pants and hitting his hurt wrist in the process. Hissing slightly at the pang, he glanced at her one last time. She turned away just as he looked down, but her chest was moving up and down unnaturally fast. Feeling as if the Elipidios's eyes were burning into him even though he couldn't see them and unsure how to amend for making her cry yet again, he took a step toward the door. "Well, look, I only have two minutes to apologize, so ah… I'll go now. You know how to reach me if you… ever want to talk again. I'll wait for you, you know. You're the one… I will love… for the rest of my life."

He turned to leave, as downtrodden as though the whole world had fallen on his shoulders. This was his last chance, and he couldn't think of anything else to say. But when he reached the entrance to the den, Divya stopped him by saying his name.

Miserable green eyes turned to look at her, as she said, "Jace, I **will** have to hate you forever if you leave now."

"W-what?" he croaked uncertainly.

Divya stood, quilt draped around her shoulders. "Don't you understand," she said, taking one hesitant step forward, then another. "I'm completely in love with you, and the only thing you could possibly do to earn my hatred is deprive me of you." She took another step so she was right in front of him and tilted her head back to look into his face. "I need you."

"You do?"

She smiled tremulously and let go of her blanket to take his hands. He flinched as she touched his hurt wrist and she looked closer at it, then up at him.

"What happened?"

"I just… hit it… on a metal railing…"

She grinned and flung her arms around him. "You're such a goof!" Her lips caught his and she breathed, "But I love you so much."

Jace folded his arms around her as tightly as he could, kissing her deeply and soundly, wanting to never let go of her again. Her response echoed his, clinging to him for dear life, trying to eliminate all space between their bodies. They retreated to the couch and spent a long time wordlessly reassuring each other that they would never be alone again.

From the other room, Agatha smiled as the voices disappeared without the door being opened, assuring Miles that the two must have made up. Her husband grunted uninterestedly, but a small smile quirked one side of his mouth anyway. She immediately went into predictions about the future of the couple in their den, happily fixated on how soon the wedding date would be set.

And if she had dared to interrupt the couple themselves, Divya and Jace may have been able to reassure her that it would be soon, if they could have stopped kissing long enough to get the words out.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

Please review!


	24. all the pieces of my heart

Thank you Cailany, Destiny Quill, d1bontemp, kaibj, or-chan, Taizen, Party in the Afterlife, n-zelda-n, Nameless Little Girl, My-name-is-kai22, isthatnecessary, and bladz-liska for your reviews!

Also thank you to everyone who took a moment to send me their thoughts, especially those who did so often (in order of appearance!): Tevera Raincoat, Keight Ylonen, Amongst-Azarath, Tuli-Susi, twin1, I, of or on, Kris the ninja pirate, Killani, Nameless Little Girl, Dacen Jace, Suzurari, FlamingWolfGirl, Kai Hiwatari1, Party in the Afterlife, bladz-liska, Destiny-Quill, kais-sad-Bby22, shadow dragon beyfan, Not a Geisha Gurl, n-zelda-n, d1bontemp, kaifangirl14/or-chan, Toyed with like Marionettes, my-name-is-kai22, kaibj, isthatnecessary, Taizen, and Cailany. Kudos to Destiny Quill, who reviewed every chapter!

And many thanks also to those people who added this story or me to their favorites list and/or alerts lists.

Welcome to the future! Luckily, while it has been four and a half years since the last chapter took place, I've only been struggling over writing this for about a month and a half. Aka, still bad but not as bad as it could be…

I don't understand the Beyblade story arcs in relation to anyone's ages, so I have no idea where this would fit in the real story. I left out added characters (Hero, Daichi) so it doesn't matter too much anyway.

--edit-- OMG confused Dragoon with Dranzer (my, how could you do that, they only have three letters in common!) Heh yeah... fixed now...

Kai and Dranzer © Nelvana and Takao Aoki.

………………………………………………ICE………………………………………………

………………………………………by Destiny Kitty………………………………………

…………………………………all the pieces of my heart…………………………………

_Smash! _

A white beyblade crashed into its cerulean opponent. Sparks flew, glittering in the bright afternoon sunlight.

The metallic blue blur pushed off the pale-colored one and spun around behind it as the other rocketed in the opposite direction, narrowly avoiding a large obstacle in its path. It turned at the last minute and increased speed as it aimed another hit.

At the last second, the blue blade shifted to the side just enough that the white one missed it, then immediately rammed into its opponent as it passed by. The small white disk soared out of the battle dish, landing a dozen feet away on the stage of an outdoor amphitheater. Spectators surrounding the stage shouted their applause.

_Dranzer. _

The blue blade's sixteen-year-old owner turned away from the crowd's noise and his exhibition match victory as Dranzer returned to his hand, walking off the back of the stage and past a short boy with a computer on his lap.

"Very nice," Kenny congratulated over the announcer's amplified exclamations. His fingers never stopped tapping away on Dizzy.

"Yeah, you're getting good, Kai," a loud voice butted in. "Maybe someday you'll be able to beat me!"

"Tyson, be nice," reprimanded Ray, strolling over to join them from a completed match of his own.

"Whatever," Tyson scoffed, chucking something into the surrounding trees. His teammates watched in mild amusement as several birds flew away, startled.

"Who wants ice cream!?" yelled Max, jogging up to the group with his hands full of brightly-colored packages purchased from a nearby vendor. He plopped down on a bench and sighed. "Ah, this is my favorite part of the Park."

"I like the ponds," remarked Ray conversationally.

Tyson took one of Max's sweets and returned to hurling projectiles into the trees one-handed as he ate. Watching him, Max asked, "What are you doing?"

"Throwing stale bread to the birds. Ray told me to."

"Did he mention that you're not trying to knock the birds out of the trees with it?"

"I hate pigeons," said Tyson in a manner of explanation.

"Oh…" Max replied, taking a bite of his ice cream. "Do you guys want any?"

"I never thought we'd see the day –" commented Ray as he picked out a frozen fruit bar "– when Tyson would throw away food."

"The behavior does seem decidedly out of his character," concurred Kenny, choosing an ice cream cone in hopes that it would not drip on Dizzy.

From his usual distance away Kai's quiet voice noted, "Tyson let food go stale?"

The bluenette in question, having run out of projectiles, returned for more ice cream. "Here Kai, have some!" he called, chucking a fudgesicle at the storm-haired boy.

Kai caught it, sending his offending teammate a death glare, and was about to hurl it back when he caught Max's eager expression. Those huge blue eyes were begging Kai to eat the thing. _At least he's begging silently for once_, Kai thought.

The fudgesicle was delicious but excessively sweet, in Kai's opinion. Unfortunately the hot July sun softened it fast enough that it was threatening to fall off its stick shortly after being opened. Reluctantly Kai ate more quickly, repressing the urge to plaster the soft dessert all over Tyson's smug face.

Despite his best efforts he could not conquer the blazing heat while still remaining coolly detached, and the ice cream melted all over his hands. Slightly repulsed by the stickiness, he barked, "Max – napkins?"

The blond shook his head, mouth full of frozen treat, and pointed toward the ice cream stand. "Ask him," he said through his mouthful, and took another bite.

Kai watched Max's eyes close in pleasure before stalking toward the vendor.

"Don't get shanghaied by your fans! You know these Americans are crazy!" Tyson yelled at his back. Kai ignored him, letting Max handle the insult.

The busy ice cream vendor was slightly put out by the brusque champion's presence but handed over the napkins without too much fuss, cowed by the sixteen-year-old's fierce red eyes.

Kai found that the nearest trash bin was located down a path, and followed it to dispose of his crumpled napkins and fudgesicle wrapper. About to return to his team, a very enthusiastic young fan stopped him.

"Hey, you're Kai Hiwitari, aren't you?"

"Hn," Kai groaned, trying to extract himself.

"Awesome! Wait 'til my friend Ben hears about this. I've always wanted to meet you, you're one of my favorite bladers. People even say you used to live in New York!" The boy became more excited. "Did you really? I've lived here all my life, and I blade here in the Park as much as I can –"

His outburst was checked when a voice called, "Connor?"

The boys both looked up to see a dark-haired woman approaching. "Aunt Divya, look, it's –"

"Kai?" she breathed, caught by familiar shocking red eyes.

Disappointed about being deprived of his exciting news, the boy named Connor whined, "Hey, how did you know? I thought you said you didn't have any idea who the championship beybladers are."

Divya didn't answer, taking a halting step forward. She and Kai stared intently at one another.

Kai turned heel to stalk away but she called, "Kai, wait!… How are you?"

The gray-and-blue head nodded curtly.

Guiltily self-conscious, she continued, "Are you… happy?"

He shrugged, one hand straying protectively to the pocket holding Dranzer. Divya watched the motion with fond amusement breaking through her anguish.

"You haven't changed all that much, have you?"

Kai spun around to face her, glaring hotly. "What would you know about it?" he spat.

Hurt flooded her dark brown eyes, but she didn't drop his gaze. "Nothing, I guess, because you ran away before we had the chance to really get to know you."

"You didn't want me. You said you were going to send me back to Russia!"

"What?" she asked in confusion.

"You yelled that at me!"

"I didn't know you were there!"

"Aunt Divya…?" her nephew squeaked, watching in confused shock as his aunt and his idol yelled at each other.

Again Kai tried to walk away but she caught hold of his arm before he could go more than a step. "Please listen to me," she pleaded to his back. "I'm sorry if what happened was my fault, Kai. I truly did care for you. We searched for you for such a long time, but – " Her voice caught in her throat, and she stopped speaking.

Kai glanced back, watching her wipe her eyes with an expression of cold indifference hardening his face. "Let go," he said quietly.

"Kai, please…" He glared at her again, but she struggled on. "Let me apologize."

"No."

"But – "

"No! You don't get it. All I wanted was a home but you took that away from me again!"

"I didn't mean to! I didn't – " Impulsively she took a step forward and pulled him into a tight hug, trying with both words and touch to convey her feelings. "I wanted us to be a family, seriously I did. It was awful when we couldn't find you. I was so afraid that you were dead."

Kai froze as her arms closed around him, looking away. Despite his initial flare of anger as her presence revived memories of those distant winter days, her warm words were breaking down his resistance, penetrating the thorny wall he kept around himself. He wanted to believe her, wished to reclaim the closest thing to family that he could remember. It hurt to think that he was unlovable, a suspicion that had entered him mind when he discovered that his grandfather, his only living relative, cared nothing for him. Listening to her apologize at the brink of tears seemed proof to the contrary. Confused and uncertain, he let his forehead fall to her shoulder.

She stifled a sob and held him closer, finally relived of years of fruitless worry. Kai, having heard her explanation, was doubtfully reevaluating his choice to go into hiding after he ran away. His arms gently closed around her to return her embrace.

"Divya, we're ready to go home…" another voice called as its owner approached. The man stopped dead in his tracks as Kai lifted his head and met the gaze of bright green eyes widened in disbelief.

"Look, Jace, it's Kai, and – and he's alright," Divya said tearfully, a shaky smile lighting up her face.

She loosened her hold on Kai but kept one arm around his shoulders as they both faced Jace. He walked up to shake Kai's hand, saying, "It's good to see you again, Kai… You're getting tall."

Kai just nodded, but a smile was creeping onto his lips and for once he didn't even want to hide it.

"Daddy Mommy look what I found!" called a high voice as a small dark-haired girl ran up from behind Jace, showing off a big white flower. She stopped when she noticed Kai and stood staring up at him with emerald eyes almost identical to Jace's own.

"How lovely, Alya," Divya cooed as Jace scooped the girl up off the ground. She snuggled against his chest, still watching Kai.

"This is our daughter Alya, Kai," introduced Jace. "And this – " motioning for the boy who still stood a few steps away " – is my nephew, Connor."

"You know him too?" the eleven-year-old boy asked, awe and bewilderment and a bit of jealous hurt in his voice.

"Yeah, he stayed with us once for a little while, when he was about your age."

"No way!" Connor looked from his uncle to his idol, not sure whether to believe the story. "That's so insane! How did you meet? Were you already a blader then?"

Kai nodded, watching Divya take Jace's free hand so that the champion blader, the two adults, and their daughter formed a tight foursome. The couple smiled at each other, and then Divya opened her mouth to explain. "Kai was – "

"Oi, Kai!"

"Hey, what's going on, man?

"We lost you."

Kai and the rest glanced over to see Tyson, Max, Ray and Kenny approaching, all wearing similar expressions of complete astonishment to find him in such close, _friendly_ proximity to other people, people they didn't even know.

"Tyson thought that the fangirls might have found you, Kai, but, um… what's up?" asked Kenny, perplexed.

"My team," Kai explained simply, and then to his teammates, "my… friends."

"No way, **Kai** admits to having **friends**!" Tyson squealed. "My gosh, who are you and what have you done with **our** Kai? You know, cranky guy, about your height, weird hair – ouch!" He was cut off by Ray poking him in the back and Max stepping on his foot. "Whaaat?" he whined as the others walked past him. A good deal of hand-shaking and introducing went around the circle, with Tyson moping around the perimeter and Connor about ready to explode with excitement. Eventually Divya found Kai again and asked, "Would you – and your team – care to join us for dinner? We could… catch up."

Kai looked around at his teammates and the others, meeting numerous gazes. Taking a quick tally of positive expressions – which did not include Tyson, who was launching Dragoon at a flock of pigeons – he turned back to her and nodded.

The group reconvened at Jace and Divya's house later that evening. It was the best time for the Blade Breakers, who had a busy agenda for the rest of their stay in New York City. They were scheduled to go somewhere else that night but Kai invoked his rights as team captain and canceled the event, freeing the team to visit the small but lovely home.

Connor, who would not have missed this dinner for the world, brought his best friend Ben and asked lots of questions about the Blade Breaker's exploits. Since Kai ignored the boys they refocused on Tyson, always the glory hound, and the three got into an excited and detailed discussion of winning beybattle tactics.

The rest of the table discussed how Divya and Jace had found Kai, a story that his teammates found highly interesting. This lasted most of the way thought dinner, occasionally interrupted by random highlights of the Blade Breakers' adventures, Divya and Jace's wedding, and other important events.

Eventually Kai and the couple wandered into a conversation of their own about what had happened to him since that December more than four years earlier. Divya tried to keep the chat light but this was made impossible as Kai delved into dark stories of his rediscovered childhood. She was shocked by what Kai had to tell, while Jace only nodded darkly, understanding that this had been the source of the boy's nightmares.

Kenny had by that point discovered an internet connection he could use to update his stats after the day's exhibition matches. Max was enthralled by the dessert, and Tyson had left the table to give Connor and Ben a live demonstration of some of his favorite moves with Dragoon. This left Ray to study Kai, observing happily how well the scene suited him. The normally reticent and often sullen boy was showing a softer side with this pair of people that was wonderful to see. Ray knew he felt the same way about his village and had seen the other Breakers behave similarly in the company of their families and good friends, so it was encouraging to find that Kai did have people he trusted and appreciated just as much.

The Chinese teen was distracted from these thoughts by a tug on his hair. He found the culprit under the table, a dark-haired little stray who was trying to play with the long shiny braid that had attracted her attention. Unable to resist the miserable look on her tiny face when he tugged it out of her grip, he excused himself from the table to entertain Divya's two-year-old daughter.

Conversation at the table meandered comfortably to the background sounds of Kenny typing and beyblades battling. Max eventually wandered away to join the Tyson and the two champions gave Connor and Ben a private show match. Ray and Alya paused their own game to watch.

Despite a lingering shyness about exposing his thoughts and feelings, the relaxed, homey atmosphere and Jace and Divya's smiles encouraged Kai to reveal many things he normally would never have spoken of aloud. Divya's comforting touch on his arm helped him mourn his lost family, while Jace's understanding nods made it easier to confide concerns about leading the Blade Breakers.

The party did not end until late in the evening. By that time Alya was asleep on the couch with Ray curled up in an easy chair next to her, both tuckered out by a long game of kitten-and-puppy. Jace carried his daughter off to her bedroom while Kai roused Ray and Kenny and Divya told the other four to wrap up their blading session. While everyone prepared to leave, Divya sought out Kai again.

"You seem happy with them," she observed reflectively.

Kai looked around the room, at the four other teenage boys saying goodnight and thanking Jace for the hospitality. Ray had just caught Tyson by the arm to encourage his participation in the thanks, and Max was laughing at the bluenette for almost tripping over Kenny as he was pulled away from his new fans. A faint smile touched the corners Kai's lips, and he nodded.

Divya smiled as well, relieved in the knowledge the boy who could have become her son was in good company with this bunch, and gathered him into one final hug. They clung to each other for a minute before Kai pulled back to face her.

"Thank you," he whispered.

She smiled, trying to cover the tear escaping down her cheek.

"It's ok," reassured Kai. "I have friends now, good friends. They'll be there for me."

Divya sniffed, brushing at her wet cheek, and nodded. "I know," she sighed. Determined not to embarrass herself or Kai, she absentmindedly brushed silver hair away from the sixteen-year-old's eyes, realizing how tall and grown up he really was. Those red eyes watched her, calm and steady, and her smile revived as she recognized that he would certainly be able to take care of himself. He had, after all, made it this far.

She stepped back to let him join the rest of the boys. After herding his teammates toward the door Kai turned to say goodnight to Jace, who ignored his proffered hand to shake and pulled the teen into a hug. "Take care of yourself, there," the man said, ruffling Kai's stormy hair. Kai shook his bangs back out of his face and replied, "You take care of your family too."

"Oh, I will, don't you worry," Jace assured, an arm around the boy's shoulders as he led Kai to the door. He gathered Divya into the other arm as they passed her, and kissed her forehead before waving goodbye to the boys climbing into the limo sent by the BBA.

Kai stood to the side, waiting to follow his mates. When they were all in he glanced back for a last look.

Divya caught her breath and ran down the front steps to catch him in her arms one more time. "I'm sorry!" she sniffed into his shoulder.

"It's alright," Kai murmured, holding onto her just as tightly, "really…"

"No, I'm sorry for embarrassing you in front of your friends," she half-laughed, half-sobbed. "I'm just so happy… that you came back." She let go, gazing fondly down at him. "Always remember, if you ever need us, we'll be right here for you. I love you, like a son."

Kai found something was blocking his throat and preventing him from answering, so he just nodded before turning to climb into the car. Divya returned to Jace's comforting embrace, waving goodbye. The limo turned a corner and the couple slipped out of sight.

Kai's red gaze, robbed of this view, slid thoughtfully to the floor of the vehicle. It was anything but quiet inside, as Tyson and Max were squabbling over the possible illegality of move Max had made to win their show match that evening. Max was scoffing to Ray that it was a perfectly legitimate tactic, while Tyson ranted at Kenny about the damage to Dranzer. After Kenny took the gray blade, promising to fix the imagined dent, Tyson turned on Max and started taunting him for having to resort to cheating to beat the world champion.

"I did not cheat!"

"Yes, you did!"

"Why are you such an arrogant jerk?"

"I am not!"

"Are so!"

"Am **not**!"

"Are **so**!"

Ray shook his head, exchanging a look with Kenny. Then he realized how unusual it was that Kai had not yet put an end to Max and Tyson's ridiculous fight and glanced over to their captain. He found the red eyes down-turned as the other teen gazed blankly at the floor.

Rising, Ray crossed the middle of the limo and settled next to Kai. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked, laying a hand on Kai's arm.

Kai shrugged off his touch but didn't answer.

"Kai?"

Still the stormy-haired head remained bowed, and the boy did not respond.

"Look, Kai… I know what it's like leaving behind people I care about. We all do. But I also know that they are out there thinking about me and hoping everything will turn out for the best."

Forlorn and distant, the crimson eyes rose briefly to meet gold ones, then looked away out the dark window at the night city.

"You still have us."

Tyson, who was still squabbling with Max, took that opportunity to spring out of his seat at the blond sitting across from him. He knocked over Kenny on his way and scared Max off his bench just as a car cut in front of their limo and the driver had to abruptly stomp on the brakes. All three of the other boys went flying forward, landing on top of Ray and Kai.

Chaos reigned for a moment as Tyson continued trying to wrestle with Max for hurting Dragoon until Kai caught both Tyson and Max by their shirt collars, holding them away from each other.

"Ok, I get it. Now would you get off me?"

Ray looked concerned and Max embarrassed, but Tyson smirked. "Hah, you're getting soft, Kai. Admit it."

Undaunted by Kai's expression, he called, "Come on, group hug on Kai!"

Led by sheer amusement and a bit of pushing, Ray, Max and Kenny followed Tyson, burying Kai under them. Their leader froze under the extremely close contact, not moving until they began to wonder what was wrong and let up to investigate. He was holding on to the seat cushion for dear life, glaring daggers at them.

"Get –" he breathed "– the hell – off of me."

"Yup, that's the Kai we know!" Tyson laughed.

Kai expected them to leave him alone, now that they had had their fun, but instead the four boys settled comfortably on either side of him.

"So, Kai…" started Max, reclining as far as he could into the plush seat.

"Now that we know you're human and all…" continued Tyson.

"At least there is an approximately ninety-nine percent chance that you are," stated Kenny. Ray giggled while the others looked faintly bewildered.

"Are you still waking us up at seven o'clock tomorrow morning for training?" Tyson blurted, putting on a ridiculously overdone pleading face and clasping his hands together. "Please please please say no!"

Kai grinned evilly. "Oh yes, we will most certainly be training early tomorrow morning. In fact, since you beg so well, we can go even earlier. How does five sound to you?"

Laughter filled the car as Tyson melted with dismay at the thought of waking up so early, and the Blade Breakers settled back into life as usual, except a little closer and more comfortable than before this night.

…………………………………………The End………………………………………………...

Thank you for reading! This story is nearly one hundred pages long – and my first long story completed! --dies-- I think I'm going back to writing one-shots... although I just started a new original story that might end up on my devArt…

--DestinyKitty--


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